SELECTED    ANDi 


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tihvavy  of  trhe  theological  ^tminwy 

PRINCETON  •  NEW  JERSEY 


PURCHASED  BY  THE 

MRS.  ROBERT  LENOX  KENNEDY 

CHURCH  HISTORY  FUND 

BR  740  .D42  1898 

Dearmer,  Percy,  1867-1936, 

Religious  pamphlets 


THE  PAMPHLET  LIBRARY 

Edited  ly  Arthur  Waugh 


RELIGIOUS   PAMPHLETS 


RELIGIOUS  PAMPHLETS  ^ 


SELECTED  AND  AKRANGED 


By  the  Rev.  PERCY  ^EARMER,  M.A 


WITH  AN  INTRODUCTION  AND  NOTES 


l 


LONDON 
KEGAN   PAUL,    TRENCH,    TRUBNER   &   CO. 

1898 


PREFATORY  NOTE 

TO 

^THE  PAMPHLET  LIBRARY' 

The  object  of  The  Pamphlet  Library  is  to  set 
before  readers  who  are  interested  in  the  literary 
and  constitutional  history  of  our  country  the 
text  of  those  pamphlets  or  tractates  which, 
besides  possessing  the  only  saving  qualities 
of  distinction  and  style,  have  also  exercised 
a  striking  influence  upon  the  current  of  events. 
At  present  five  volumes  are  in  contemplation, 
dealing  respectively  with  pamphlets  of  poHtical, 
literary,  religious,  and  dramatic  significance, 
and  the  editors  who  have  undertaken  them 
have  regulated  their  choice  primarily  by  two 
considerations.  Each  pamphlet,  it  has  been 
held,  should  have  high  literary  qualities,  and 
should  also  mark  a  distinct  change  or  develop- 
ment of  taste  or  standpoint.  Unfortunately, 
the  pamphleteer  of  the  seventeenth  and 
eighteenth  centuries  was  not  always  as  brief 
as  he  was  effective,  and  the  restrictions  of 
space    have    obliged    the    omission    of   some 


6  PREFATORY  NOTE 

polemical  articles  which  might  possibly  have 
been  included  with  advantage.  It  is  hoped, 
however,  that  by  means  of  excerpt  and  footnote 
no  pamphlet  of  the  first  importance  has  been 
altogether  neglected ;  and  the  editors  of  the 
various  volumes  explain  in  their  introductions 
the  reason  and  the  limit  of  their  selections. 
Concerning  the  value  of  the  Pamphlet  and 
the  expediency  of  its  recension,  Dr  Johnson 
himself  will  be  found  discom'sing  with  preg- 
nancy and  wit  in  Mr  Ernest  Rhys's  collection  of 
Literary  Pamphlets,  and  his  strenuous  sentences 
are  more  than  sufficient  argument  in  favour  of 
the  present  enterprise.  For,  indeed.  Reform 
is  the  child  of  Controversy,  and  the  most 
effectual  arrows  in  the  quiver  of  Controversy 
are  those  of  a  country's  Press.  Before  the  day 
of  the  clamouring  newspaper,  the  Pamphlet 
was  the  leader  of  popular  taste,  so  that  in  a 
study  of  these  fugitive  pieces  we  may  see  the 
features  of  an  Age,  as  in  a  glass,  may  mark  its 
expression,  and  understand  its  tendency.  As 
some  such  footnote  to  history  the  following 
papers  have  been  collected.  How  far  they 
may  prove  of  value  it  rests  with  others  to 
decide. 

A.  W. 


CONTENTS 

PAGE 

PREFACE  TO  THE  PAMPHLET  LIBRARY       .  .  5 

INTRODUCTION       ...  .9 

I.   JOHN  WICLIF  .  .  .  .45 

Septwm  Hereses 

II.  SIMON  FISH  .  .  .  .55 

Supplicacyon  for  the  Beggers 

III.  JOHN  KNOX  .  .  .  .80 

Monstruous  Regiment  of  Women 

IV.  THOMAS  CARTWRIGHT  .  .  .84 

Second  Admonition  to  the  Parliament 

V.   MARTIN  MARPRELATE  .  .  .111 

Epitome 

VI.   TOM  NASH  AND  JOHN  LYLY  .  .142 

Fapj)e  with  an  Hatchet 
Almond  for  a  Parr  at 

VII.   ROBERT  PARSONS      .  .  .  .152 

Reasons   why  Catholiques  refuse  to 
goe  to  Church 

VIIL    WILLIAM  PRYNNE    .  .  .  .181 

Looking -Glasse  for  Lordly  Prelates 

IX.   JOHN  BASTWICK        .  .  .  .189 

The  Letany 

X.   RICHARD  BAXTER     ....        200 

One  Sheet  for  the  Ministry 


CONTENTS 


PAQB 

XL 

GEORGE  FOX             .... 

Concerning  the  Rule 

215 

XII. 

LORD  HALIFAX        .... 

Letter  to  a  Dissenter 

229 

XIII. 

DANIEL  DEFOE         .... 

Shortest  Way  with  the  Dissenters 

255 

XIV. 

CHARLES  LESLIE     .                . 

The  WolfStript 

286 

XV. 

JONATHAN  SWIFT 

The  Abolishing  of  Christianity 

296 

XVI. 

WILLIAM  LAW 

Second  Letter  to  the  Bishop  of  Bangc/r 

323 

iVII. 

SYDNEY  SMITH        .... 

Fifth  Letter  on  the  Subject  of  the 
Catholics 

352 

XVIII.   JOHN  HENRY  NEWMAN       . 

Seventh  Tract  for  the  Times 


373 


INTRODUCTION 

Pamphlets  have  tliis  in  common  with  news- 
papers, that  they  are  written  without  much 
tliought  of  posterity  ;  and  thus  the  vast  majority 
of  them,  having  raised  their  chitter  of  a  day, 
pass  quickly  into  obHvion,  only  to  be  read  with 
weariness  and  dilficulty  ])y  the  curious  in  after 
years.  Alhisions  that  are  lost  beyond  recovery, 
jests  that  grin  upon  us  without  meaning, 
triumphant  arguments  based  upon  moth-eaten 
premisses,  and  acid  personalities  that  now  in- 
jure none  but  their  authors,  these  are  but  poor 
reading  to  the  most  devoted  of  historians. 
Yet,  were  there  no  others  but  these,  they 
would  still  be  of  rich  value  to  us ;  for  in 
the  weakest  of  them,  the  past  becomes  alive 
again  and  makes  us  its  contemporaries.  But, 
fortunately,  there  is  a  small  minority  of 
pamphlets,  which  were  written  in  that  larger 
spirit  which  is  always  modern,  and  can  afford 
to  defy  antiquity. 

The  pamphlets  in  this  collection  cannot  in- 
deed all  claim  to  belong  to  this  latter  class ; 

A  9 


lo  INTRODUCTION 

for  they  liave  been  chosen  for  their  historical 
significance,  and  history  has  not  always  been 
most  deeply  affected  by  that  which  posterity 
cares  most  to  remember.  Still,  the  greater 
men  had  their  say  and  were  listened  to; 
it  has  therefore  been  possible  to  draw  mainly 
from  them,  and  to  choose  the  larger  part 
of  this  collection  from  writers  who,  both  for 
literary  beauty,  and  because  they  avoided  the 
transitory  nothings  which  lesser  men  fix  upon, 
are  worthy  of  our  veneration  to-day.  If  I  had 
set  only  a  literary  end  in  view,  it  would  have 
been  easy  to  have  included  other  pamphlets 
from  these  writers,  and  from  others  of  like 
make,  barring  out  altogether  the  yelping,  snarl- 
ing pack  of  lesser  men.  But  it  has  been  my 
aim,  in  so  far  as  the  limits  of  the  book  per- 
mitted, to  flash  the  mirror  along  the  stages  of 
modern  history,  giving  that  vivid  reflection  of 
religion  in  its  various  manifestations  which  the 
pamphlet  so  readily  affords.  Such  an  impres- 
sion cannot,  I  venture  to  think,  fail  to  be  of 
value  in  the  present  condition  of  rehgious  con- 
troversy, nor  to  encourage  the  growth  of  that 
historic  sense  which  has  proved  so  useful  a 
solvent  of  many  bitter  disputations. 

Pamphlets  are  older  than  printing ;  they  are, 
according  to   Oldys,    Hhe   eldest   offspring   of 


INTRODUCTION  ii 

paper ' ;  and  religious  pamphlets  may  well  be 
as  old  as  religious  disputation,  no  younger,  that 
is,  than  man  himself.  But  for  our  purposes  we 
may  well  take  Wiclif  as  the  starting  point  of 
the  English  pamphlet,  since  he  may  be  said  to 
have  invented  EngHsh  prose  as  a  vehicle  of 
Kterary  exposition,  and  was  the  first  great 
instance  of  a  popular  wi'iter  before  the  days  of 
printing. 

Wiclif,  in  the  later  years  of  his  life,  turned 
from  scholastic  disputants,  and  devoted  his 
attention  to  the  common  people;  he  appealed 
in  the  very  spirit  of  the  pamphleteer  from 
current  authority  to  public  opinion,  spreading 
his  tracts  as  wide  as  the  transcriber's  pen 
would  allow,  and  sending  his  'poor  priests' 
to  preach  his  doctrines  throughout  the  country. 
Of  the  many  extant  tracts  wherein  he  set 
down  in  simple  nervous  English  the  pith  of 
his  ponderous  Latin  treatises,  I  have  chosen 
one  which,  in  spite  of  its  shortness,  covers  most 
of  the  matters  he  disputed ;  since  there  is  in 
Wiclif  s  case  no  one  pamphlet  which  attained  a 
special  notoriety,  and  the  Septem  Hereses  is  a 
good  type  of  them  all. 

There  is  indeed  one  short  essay  from  Wiclif  s 
pen  which  has  a  pre-eminent  reputation,  the 
Wyket ;  but    it  was   delivered   as   a  sermon, 


12  INTRODUCTION 

and  therefore  could  not  strictly  be  included 
in  a  collection  of  pamphlets.  And  here  it  may 
be  well  to  say  that  as  for  many  years  the  pulpit 
continued  to  be  used  for  pamphleteering  pur- 
poses, I  have  had  to  omit  some  notable  pam- 
phlets because  of  the  accident  of  their  delivery 
at  Paul's  Cross.  I  need  only  mention  as  an 
example  of  tliis  Latimer's  sermon  on  The 
Plough,  which,  preached  at  St  Paul's  in  1549, 
had  been  printed  and  reprinted  seven  times 
before  the  century  was  out. 

If  Wiclif  was  a  man  of  many  books  Simon 
Fish  was  a  man  of  few ;  but  of  these  one 
was  the  Supplkacyon  of  Beggars.  It  was  of 
such  importance  at  the  time  that  Oldys  says 
that  the  Reformation  itself  ^  has  been  much 
ascribed  to  one  little  pamphlet  only,  which  a 
certain  Law^yer  of  Grays  Inn,  obliged  to  fly 
into  Germany  (for  having  acted  in  a  Play 
which  incensed  Cardinal  Wolsey)  composed 
there,  and  conveyed  by  Means  of  the  Lady 
Anne  Bull  en,  to  the  Perusal  of  King  Harry, 
at  the  beginning  of  the  said  Rupture,  and  how 
the  copies  thereof  w^ere  strewed  about,  at  the 
King's  Procession  to  Westminster  (the  first 
example,  as  some  think,  of  that  Kind  of 
Appeal  to  the  Pubhc).'  Wiclif s  pamphlets 
had  been  honestlv  one-sided,  but  that  of  Fish 


INTRODUCTION  13 

was  maliciously  so.  Nevertheless  it  amused 
Henry  VIII.  and  did  its  work ;  the  answer  which 
Sir  Thomas  More  composed,  A  Suppliccvcyon  of 
Soidys  being,  as  so  often  happened  with  subse- 
quent Church  rejoinders,  too  big  a  cudgel  to 
crush  so  small  a  foe.  The  excellence  of  the 
Supplicacyon  was  that  it  exactly  expressed  in 
a  humorous  form  the  prevailing  discontent  at 
the  richness  and  slackness  of  the  Church  ;  and 
it  nerved  men  for  the  attack  that  was  to  follow. 
From  the  Supplicacyon  of  Beggars,  which 
heralds  the  religious  break-up  of  Henry's 
reign,  we  pass  to  John  Knox's  Monstruous 
Regiment  of  Women,  for  the  sake  of  the  vivid 
picture  in  its  peroration  of  the  horror  which 
the  Marian  persecutions  raised  in  the  hearts 
of  those  who  heard  of  them  from  their  safe 
places  of  exile.  We  have  nothing  to  do  with 
the  main  thesis  of  Knox's  diatribe,  which  is 
that  ^  to  promote  a  woman  to  bear  rule,  superi- 
ority, dominion,  or  empire  above  any  realm  is 
repugnant  to  nature,  contrary  to  God,  and, 
finally,  it  is  the  subversion  of  good  order,  of 
all  equity  and  justice ' ;  but  the  denunciation 
of  that  ^  cursed  Jesabel  of  England,'  on  whose 
account  the  pamphlet  was  written,  strikes  the 
first  note  of  the  indignation,  both  loud  and 
deep,  which  did^more  than  anything  else  to 


14  INTRODUCTION 

make  and  keep  England  Protestant.  Mary 
wrought  far  more  harm  than  her  father  to  the 
faith  she  loved;  and  her  memory  made  the 
English  people  unable  for  three  centuries  calmly 
to  consider  the  merits  of  a  religion  which  had 
been  supported  by  such  means. 

Cart^^Tight's  Admonition  to  Parliament  marks 
the  full  development  of  Puritanism.  It  now 
takes  form  in  definite  opposition  to  the  English 
Church,  both  in  ceremonies  and  in  order.  Puri- 
tans are  indeed  almost  entirely  Nonconformists, 
and  not  Separatists,  and  there  is  no  idea  as  yet 
of  permanent  division ;  for  such  a  thing  w^oidd 
have  seemed  to  all  Protestants  an  intolerable 
confession  of  failure,  nor  was  it  finally  accepted 
till  after  the  Restoration.  But  the  hope  of  the 
Nonconformist  Puritans  was  to  capture  the 
Church ;  it  was  not  for  toleration  but  ascen- 
dency that  they  fought.  By  the  system  of  classes, 
which  was  based  upon  Cartwright's  Book  of 
Discipline  of  1580,  a  deliberate  and  well-organ- 
ised attempt  was  made  to  establish  an  im- 
perium  in  imperio,  and  so  to  eviscerate  the 
Church  system,  by  the  introduction  of  a  Puri- 
tan connnittee  of  clergymen  with  complete 
authority  in  each  diocese.  CartwTight  was 
thus  not  oidy  the  most  influential  teacher  on 
his  side,  but  he  gave  a  system  and  method 


INTRODUCTION  15 

to  Puritanism  which  it  had  lacked  before. 
Our  extracts  from  the  Admonition  give  both 
an  exposition  of  this  system  and  an  interest- 
ing criticism  of  the  order  of  the  Church  of 
England. 

But  already  an  attack  of  a  different  kind 
was  being  made  against  the  Church  of  England. 
From  1570  there  was  a  constant  flow  of  Puri- 
tan tracts,  which  poured  virulent  abuse,  not 
only  upon  episcopacy,  but  upon  the  Bishops 
themselves,  and  culminated  in  the  famous 
Marprelate  libels  of  1588-9.  More  than  forty 
of  these  strange  documents  were  reprinted  in 
1593  by  Waldegrave,  the  Marprelate  printer, 
under  the  curious  title — '  A  Parte  of  a  Register, 
contayning  sundrie  memorable  matters,  written 
by  divers  godly  and  learned  of  our  time,  which 
stande  for,  and  desire  the  reformation  of  our 
Church,  in  DiscipHne,  and  Ceremonies,  accord- 
iuge  to  the  pure  worde  of  God,  and  the  Lawe 
of  our  Lande.' 

This  most  interesting  collection,  which 
mirrors  the  rise  of  Puritanism,  might  well 
be  republished  to-day.  Here,  however,  we 
can  only  indicate  its  contents.  The  very  title 
is  fidl  of  significant  phrases ;  such  as,  the  word 
'godly,'  which  has  already  become  in  Puritan 
mouths  the  technical  term  for  Puritanism :  the 


1 6  INTRODUCTION 

use  of  the  phrase  *  our  Church,'  since  the  Puri- 
tans were  still  Churchmen,  who  were  working 
for  a  further  ^reformation'  in  the  Church  of 
England;  the  behef  that  the  law  of  England 
would  be  found  on  their  side,  and  that  the 
law  of  Moses  could  be  invoked  as  the  final 
^  word  of  Ood ' ;  and  the  mention  of  '  discipline 
and  Ceremonies '  as  the  two  salient  rocks  of 
offence.  Most  of  the  pamphlets  in  this  col- 
lection are  on  these  two  last  points :  attacks 
on  prelacy  in  the  matter  of  discipline  ;  on  the 
surplice,  wedding-ring  and  baptismal  sign  of 
the  cross,  *the  dregges  of  Poperie,'  in  cere- 
monial ;  and  it  was  round  them  that  the  battle 
raged  until  Puritanism  had  triumphed,  and 
fallen,  in  the  next  century.  For  its  very 
curious  reasons  against  the  Anglican  ritual 
*The  Judgement  of  certaine  godlie  Preachers 
upon  the  Question  propounded'  should  be 
read,  while  *A  Lamentable  Complaint  of  the 
Communaltie,'  which  is  a  small  book  in  itself, 
throws  a  valuable  light  on  the  rehgious  and 
social  position  at  the  time.  Other  tracts  in 
A  Parte  of  a  Register  may  be  mentioned  as 
representative  of  the  rest  of  the  collection : — 
*  A  comfortable  epistle  by  Mai.  [blaster]  D.  W. 
Doctor  of  Divinitie ' :  ^  A  godlie  and  zealous 
letter   written   by   ^lai.    Antony   Gilby,  about 


INTRODUCTION  17 

anno  1570':  *An  examination  of  certayne 
Londoners  before  the  commissioners,  about 
anno  1567':  'The  Exceptions  of  Mai. 
Nicholas  Crane,  Preacher,  against  subscrip- 
tion, who  died  in  Newgate,  anno  1588 ' : 
'The  unlawful  practise  of  Prelates  against 
the  godly  ministers ' :  *  Certayne  reasons 
against  the  crosse  in  baptisnie':  'The  au- 
thoritie  of  the  Ministers ' :  '  The  office  of  the 
Doctor.' 

Such  was  the  character  of  the  first  Puritan 
pamphlets ;  but  with  the  appearance  of  the 
Marprelate  Libels  the  attack  assumes  an  even 
more  serious  importance ;  for  which  reason, 
and  because  of  the  confusion  that  has  settled 
upon  this  and  other  Puritan  controversies,  it 
deserves  a  rather  fuller  treatment  in  this  place. 
The  controversy  now  becomes  national.  For 
the  former  pamphlets  had  circulated  only 
among  the  '  godly  ministers '  and  their  follow- 
ing; while  Dr  Bridge's  ponderous  answer  to 
them  could  have  attracted  little  notice  outside 
learned  circles,  had  not  the  mysterious  Martin 
Marprelate  sprung  into  notoriety  with  his 
Epistle^  which  began  with  the  ironical  invita- 
tion to  'Reade  over  D.  John  Bridges,'  and 
proceeded  to  vilify  the  Bishops  with  a  vigour 
unknown   before.     This   new   onslaught  came 


1 8  INTRODUCTION 

like  a  thunderbolt.     All  England  was  stirred. 
All  men  heard  what  the  Puritans  had  to  say. 

For  the  moment  Martin  was  triumphant. 
His  boasts  and  threats  breathe  the  exulting 
confidence  of  one  whose  enemies  are  already 
at  his  feet,  i^nd  indeed  the  opposition  to  him 
was  weak  enough  at  first.  Bishop  Cooper's 
Admonition  to  the  Peoj^le  of  England,  a 
temperate  appeal  to  the  good  feeling  of 
Englishmen,  Avas  hardly  more  likely  than  Dr 
Bridge's  Defence  to  be  read  by  those  who 
chuckled  over  the  racy  invective  of  Marprelate. 

But  more  redoubtable  opponents  than  these 
worthy  verbose  dignitaries  were  soon  in  the 
field.  Men  whose  names  are  still  famous, 
Tom  Nash  and  Lyly  the  Euphuist,  drawn  by 
so  notable  an  opportunity  of  displaying  their 
wit,  dashed  into  the  fray,  and  by  August  the 
Marprelate  libels  were  met  in  kind.  The 
Countercuff'e,  Pappe  with  a  Hatchet,  An 
Almond  for  a  Parrot,  and  the  rest  were  not 
more  nice  than  the  scurrilities  of  Martin,  but 
they  were  wittier ;  and  the  advent  of  Pasquil 
(as  Nash  called  himself)  and  his  friends 
proved  a  real  '  countercuffe,'  from  which  the 
Martinists  never  recovered.  Penry,  with  all 
his  ability,  was  not  a  match  for  two  of  the 
ablest  prose-writers  of  Elizabethan  times ;  the 


INTRODUCTION  19 

biter  was  mercilessly  bitten,  and  the  sour 
ridicule  of  Marprelate  eclipsed  by  the  sharper 
lighter  wit  of  Cuthbert  Curriknave  and  Pasquil 
of  England.  The  law  too  was  quickly  set  in 
motion,  the  Martinist  printers  were  hunted 
from  one  country-house  to  another,  so  that 
early  in  1590  Penry  had  to  fly  to  Scotland. 
When,  three  years  later,  he  suffered  death  on 
other  charges,  there  does  not  seem  to  have 
been  any  general  sympathy  on  his  behalf. 

It  was  an  odd  kind  of  Church  defence 
that  came  from  the  reckless  pen  of  a  scape- 
grace Hke  Tom  Nash,  and  the  age  that  could 
be  impressed  by  it  must  have  been  curiously 
wanting  in  settled  principles.  To  us  there 
seems  but  little  serious  defence  in  any  of  the 
^  marre-Martin '  pamphlets,  and  so  little  attempt 
to  meet  the  constantly  reiterated  arguments 
of  Martin  that  we  begin  to  wonder  whether 
Nash  had  read  any  of  the  libels  he  set  himself 
to  answer.  Martin  was  at  least  in  deadly 
earnest  and  the  exponent  of  certain  religious 
convictions  which,  if  they  are  obsolete  to-day, 
were  of  vital  reality  to  him,  and  for  that  matter 
to  the  bulk  of  those  who  took  religion  seriously 
at  that  time.  His  opponents  seem  to  be 
actuated  only  by  a  personal  dislike  of  the 
uncouth  Precisians,  who  had  given  them  such 


20  INTRODUCTION 

a  glorious  opportunity  of  displaying  their  skill 
in  thwacking  and  cuffing  a  literary  combatant. 
Clever  vituperation,  quips  and  cranks,  occupy 
them  almost  entirely ;  they  make  little  attempt 
to  defend  the  outraged  characters  of  their 
Fathers  in  God,  and  display  no  convictions  more 
definite  than  a  general  loyalty  to  the  popular 
Queen  and  the  established  order  in  Church 
and  State.  It  would  be  a  ^  fine  tragedie,'  they 
think,  if  Martin  were  to  play  the  part  of 
Haman,  and  ^  he  that  seekes  to  pull  down  those 
that  are  set  in  authority  above  him,  should 
be  hoysted  upon  a  tree  above  all  others.'  Yet 
in  another  vein  Nash  could  write  so  religious 
a  book  as  Christ's  Tears  over  Jerusalem. 

Scurrilous  and  malignant  as  the  Martinists 
were,  they  were  not  without  excuse.  They 
had  suffered  grievously  at  the  hands  of  the 
erastian  Bishops,  under  the  particularly  irri- 
tating circumstances  that  their  persecutors  held 
theological  opinions  nearly  identical  with  their 
own.  The  Elizabethan  Bishops  were  at  this 
time  Calvinists  who  had  been  chosen  for  their 
pohtical  subserviency;  and  they  used  the 
power  thus  acquired  to  examine,  bully,  and 
punish  the  ^ godly'  preachers  in  the  Court  of 
High  Commission.  Penry  liimself  had  felt  the 
hand  of  Whitgift,  when  he  was  examined  by 


INTRODUCTION  21 

the  Court  in  1587.  So  great  was  the  secular 
power  of  these  ^  right  puissante  and  terrible 
priests'  that  even  the  Press  was  subject  to 
them  for  every  book  and  pamphlet  that  was 
printed.  The  only  remedy  for  the  Puritans 
was  a  secret  press,  and  it  is  known  that  Penry 
managed  the  Marprelate  printing  arrangements 
with  remarkable  daring  and  skill.  Could  it  be 
wondered  that  prelacy  was  for  him  the  symbol 
of  a  brutal  and  stupid  tyranny?  It  was  not 
an  age  to  distinguish  between  principles  and 
persons ;  and  to  him  the  respectable  time- 
serving prelates  were  Hruly  the  Bishops  of 
the  Divell,'  ^men  of  sinne,  the  Canturburie 
Caiaphas  with  the  rest  of  his  anti-Christian 
beasts,  who  beare  his  abominable  marke.'  The 
Bishops  were  more  Protestant  than  the  Queen, 
and  Martin  Marprelate  was  but  one  degree 
more  Protestant  than  the  Bishops.  He  knew 
that  they  were  not  in  accord  with  the  Catholic 
formularies  of  the  Church  that  paid  them ;  he 
knew  that  the  rehgious  settlement  was  not 
complete ;  and  like  every  Puritan  he  beheved 
that  the  goal  of  a  complete  Protestantism  on 
the  basis  of  Hhe  best  reformed  churches' 
would  soon  be  reached.  Yet,  whenever  a 
Puritan  attempted  to  carry  the  Reformation 
another  step  forward,  he  found  himself  sternly 


22  INTRODUCTION 

suppressed  by  Bishops  who  did  not  believe  in 
episcopacy  and  were  Anglicans  not  from  prhi- 
ciple  but  for  policy.  He  used  the  only  weapon 
in  his  power,  and  he  had  to  use  it  ferociously 
to  make  it  felt. 

Since  the  Marprelate  controversy  is  typical 
of  much  that  is  characteristic  in  the  history  of 
pamphlets,  and  because  the  principles  involved 
are  still  often  misunderstood,  it  is  worth  while 
to  ask  ourselves  what  was  their  effect ;  and  the 
answer  to  that  question  may  be  applied  to  the 
great  Puritan  movement  of  the  seventeenth 
century  as  well. 

In  the  first  place  the  Martinists  did  not  fight 
for  freedom,  except  in  so  far  as  every  pam- 
phleteer desires  freedom  for  his  own  opinions. 
The  history  of  pamphlets  is  naturally  united 
rather  closely  with  that  of  toleration ;  but  it 
is  hardly  honest  to  claim  any  pamphlet  writer 
as  an  apostle  of  liberty,  merely  because  he 
happened  to  represent  the  opinions  of  a 
minority  and  was  therefore  anxious  that  his 
own  party  should  be  unmolested.  The  growth 
of  toleration  has  been  very  slow,  and  the  belief 
in  it  confined  at  first  to  those  who  were  per- 
secuted. We  cannot  credit  any  sect  or  party 
with  its  possession,  except  those  which  never 
attained   to   power;    we   can  only  be  certain 


INTRODUCTION  23 

that  the  idea  has  grown  painfully  from  age 
to  age,  leaving  each  generation  a  little  more 
tolerant  than  that  which  preceded  it.  Crom- 
well, for  instance,  was  more  genuinely  tolerant 
than  Elizabeth,  but  he  could  not  extend  his 
toleration  to  Anglicans  and  Papists ;  which 
meant  in  fact  that  he  was  tolerant  to  his 
fellow  Puritans,  and  to  them  only.  In  the 
sixteenth  century  most  men  believed  fervently 
in  persecution.  Cartwright,  for  instance,  the 
idol  of  Marprelate,  gloried  in  it,  and  went  out 
of  his  way  to  say  so  in  very  strong  language. 
The  Martinists  in  fact  did  not  pretend  to 
want  tolerance :  they  were  fighting  for  some- 
thing quite  different.  They  claimed  that  their 
church-system,  the  ^  divine '  system  of  Calvin, 
should  be  established  by  law  upon  the  ruins 
of  the  existing  *  human '  one ;  and  at  that 
time  there  seemed  every  likelihood  that  the 
Anglican  settlement  would  indeed  prove  to  be 
but  the  preliminary  to  a  state-Calvinism.  The 
Martinists  fought  against  tyranny,  and  for  that 
we  are  grateful  to  them  :  nevertheless,  had  they 
triumphed,  England  would  have  suffered  under 
a  tyranny  of  the  *  saints,'  which  would  have 
caused  men  to  look  back  upon  the  Court  of 
High  Commission  as  the  symbol  of  a  golden 
age.     What  such  a  tyi*anny  could  become  we 


24  INTRODUCTION 

can  learn  from  the  condition  of  Connecticut  in 
1650,  when  blasphemy,  adultery,  sorcery,  theft 
and  disobedience  to  parents  were  punished 
with  death  on  the  model  of  the  Le^dtical  code, 
when  Baptists  and  Quakers  were  scourged  and 
Papists  hanged.  'Very  fortunate  was  it  for 
England,'  says  the  most  sympathetic  critic  of 
the  Marprelate  writings,  ^  that  the  Bishops  held 
their  own,  and  kept  these  jot  and  tittle  men 
out  of  the  power  to  compel  (as  by  the  will  of 
God)  all  men  to  think  as  they  did.'  For,  had 
they  triumphed,  'not  a  play  would  have  been 
permitted  to  be  represented,  still  less  to  have 
come  to  the  press.'  It  w^as  not  then  for  any 
principles  they  held  that  the  Martinists  helped 
on  the  cause  of  freedom,  nor  for  any  opinions 
in  advance  of  their  age  :  for  their  religion  con- 
sisted in  a  blind  worship  of  the  letter  of  the 
Old  Testament,  which  would  have  replaced  the 
law  of  Christ  by  that  of  Moses  ;  but  because 
they  were  forced  to  fight  for  their  owni  sakes 
against  Whitgift's  organised  suppression  of  the 
Press,  and  that  iniquitous  secular  jurisdiction 
of  the  Bishops,  which  finally  came  to  an  end  in 
the  triumph  of  seventeenth  century  Puritanism, 
and  did  not  reappear  with  the  restoration  of 
the  Church  in  1660. 

The  eifect  of  the  INIarprelate  libels  upon  the 


INTRODUCTION  25 

history  of  religion  is  also  less  simple  than  is 
sometimes  thought.  They  of  com-se  were  one 
of  the  educational  factors  in  preparing  the  way 
for  the  temporary  ascendency  of  Puritanism  in 
the  next  century;  and  so  far  was  this  recog- 
nised at  the  time  of  the  Great  Rebellion  that 
several  of  Martin's  pamphlets  were  reprinted 
and  wddely  circulated.  Yet  their  counter 
effect  upon  the  Church  was  of  far  more  per- 
manent importance.  Appearing  just  at  the 
time  when  religion  was  in  a  state  of  flux  and 
even  the  Bishops  did  not  know  where  they 
stood,  the  libels  divided  the  shifting  waters  of 
opinion  and  clarified  the  whole  thought  of  the 
country.  The  gain  to  the  Church  was  con- 
siderable, for  the  Church  had  been  dying  of 
indefiniteness.  But  in  the  very  year  of  the 
Armada,  when  men  were  least  disposed  to  look 
favourably  on  division  or  disloyalty,  appeared 
the  Marprelate  libels,  which,  on  the  one  hand, 
by  shewing  forth  Puritanism  in  its  most  un- 
amiable  light,  led  men  to  see  that  it  was  ^  not  a 
plea  for  toleration  of  non- episcopal  Christianity, 
but  an  attempt  to  enforce  the  Presbyterian 
system  upon  the  country  as  God's  ordinance,' 
while,  on  the  other,  they  forced  the  Church  to 
a  true  setting  forth  of  what  episcopacy  is. 
Whitgift  in  his  controversy  with  Cartwright, 

B 


26  INTRODUCTION 

Cooper  in  the  Admonition  itself,  had  attempted 
to  defend  the  Church  system  on  grounds  nearly 
identical  with  those  of  its  assailants.  But 
suddenly  all  was  changed.  Within  a  year  of 
the  appearance  of  Marprelate's  Epistle,  on  the 
9th  of  February,  1589,  Bancroft  preached  the 
famous  sermon  at  Paul's  Cross,  which  pro- 
claimed the  divine  right  of  the  episcopal  order, 
and  marks  the  turning  point  of  the  Reforma- 
tion in  England ;  and  five  years  later  Hooker 
produced  in  his  Ecclesiastical  Polity  the  most 
momentous  book  in  English  Church  history, 
and  settled  for  good  the  Catholic  basis  of  the 
Church. 

It  has  been  necessary,  owing  to  the  ob- 
scurantism of  controversial  historians  and  the 
particular  confusion  which  envelopes  the  Mar- 
prelate  controversy,  to  dwell  thus  at  some 
length  upon  it.  The  succeeding  writers  may 
be  dealt  with  more  summarily.  Parsons,  the 
famous  Jesuit,  whom  I  have  not  mentioned 
till  now,  though  his  pamphlet  is  eight  years 
earlier  than  Marprelate,  represents  the  Roman 
Catholic  reaction  which  has  continued  in 
various  forms  to  the  present  time.  In  his  case 
I  have  been  again  forced  to  content  myself 
with  extracts;  but  I  have  endeavoured  to 
omit  only  the  more  general  arguments,  and  to 


INTRODUCTION  27 

retain  those  which  indicate  the  Roman  Catholic 
position,  as  it  was  at  the  time  when  English 
Romanists  were  finally  making  up  their  minds 
to  abandon  the  Church  of  England. 

With  Hooker  had  come  the  recovery  of  the 
Church  ;  his  intellectual  appeal  won  the  think- 
ing men  of  the  younger  generation  to  his  side, 
and  within  twenty  years  of  his  death  his 
disciples  were  the  leaders  of  the  Church : — 
Andrewes,  one  of  the  greatest  saints  and 
divines  that  Christendom  has  produced  ;  George 
Herbert,  one  of  its  best  poets  and  foremost  too 
among  its  saints ;  Laud,  stern  disciplinarian  as 
he  was,  and  for  long  the  butt  of  controversial 
historians,  yet  acknowledged  now  by  Mr  Glad- 
stone as  ^  the  first  Primate  of  All  England  for 
many  generations  who  proved  himself  by  his 
acts  to  be  a  tolerant  theologian.' 

But  with  it  all  was  the  fatal  intermixture 
of  the  royal  prerogative,  so  wantonly  misused. 
So  Puritanism  blazed  forth  again,  no  longer 
appealing  to  the  royal  absolutism  to  put  down 
its  foes,  but  in  revolt  against  the  monarchy 
which  had  declared  against  it.  These  turbulent 
times  were  the  great  age  of  pamphleteering. 
Journals  were  few  and  poor,  tracts  numberless 
and  daring;  every  form  of  thought  had  its 
champions,  and  the  battle  raged  fiercely.     The 


28  INTRODUCTION 

people  almost  lived  upon  pamphlets,  and  the 
streets  were  full  of  what  Bishop  Earle  called 
'the  silent  traytors  that  aftront  majesty,  and 
abuse  all  authority,  under  the  colour  of  an 
irtiprimatur ' ;  between  the  years  1640  and 
1660  no  less  than  thirty  thousand  tracts  are 
known  to  have  been  issued.  The  Bishop 
wrote  in  1647  that  these  'ubiquitary  flies  have 
of  late  so  blistered  the  eares  of  all  men  that 
they  cannot  endure  any  solid  truth.'  And 
perhaps  to  them  may  be  attributed  the  singular 
ferocity  of  the  struggle,  the  onesidedness  of  the 
combatants,  and  the  sudden  revulsions  of  feel- 
ing which  first  led  people  to  plunge  into  the 
Commonwealth,  and  then,  in  their  terror  at  the 
tyranny  of  Puritanism  in  arms,  to  seek  for  some 
measure  of  freedom  in  the  Restoration. 

The  bulk  of  these  pamphlets  were  on  the 
Puritan  side,  the  writers  on  the  other  part 
being,  even  in  the  case  of  born  pamphleteers 
like  Peter  Heylin,  too  lengthy  for  their  purpose. 
Were  not  their  authors  often  witty  and  amus- 
ing the  material  would  be  unpleasant  enough. 
Turning  over  one  envenomed  libel  after  an- 
other, one  is  tempted  to  say  that  this  at  any 
rate  was  not  Christianity.  The  writers  are 
earnest  enough,  and  they  are  ready  to  suffer 
for  their  beliefs ;  but  their  religion  is  not  the 


INTRODUCTION  29 

religion  of  love.  Nor  is  there  much  intelligence 
in  their  arguments :  some,  like  Prynne,  are 
learned,  but  they  one  and  all  confine  them- 
selves to  a  perpetual  restatement  of  the  six- 
teenth century  objections,  and  that  on  the 
narrowest  lines  ;  indeed,  a  modern  Presbyterian 
or  Independent  would  find  almost  as  little  as 
the  straightest  Anglican  in  their  writings  that 
he  would  care  to  adopt.  No  doubt  the  stress 
of  the  times  brought  to  the  front  men  of  an 
intensely  hard  and  narrow  temper ;  but  the 
melancholy  thing  is  that  a  presumably  religious 
public,  in  an  age  which  has  been  credited  with 
more  than  ordinary  piety,  could  be  found  to 
delight  in  them.  Nor  was  it  by  any  means 
only  against  the  Church  that  the  Puritans 
wrote :  they  poured  an  equal  virulence  into 
each  other,  as  the  radical  distinction  between 
Separatist  Independents  and  Nonconformist 
Presbyterians  became  more  marked.  Of  Bag- 
shaw,  for  instance,  it  is  recorded  by  Dr  Grosart 
that  nearly  all  his  title-pages  were  accusations, 
and  one  of  his  worst  is  against  good  Richard 
Baxter  himself.  It  runs  thus— A  Review 
and  Conclusion  of  the  Antidote  against  Mr 
Baxters  Palliated  Cure  of  Church  Divi- 
sions. Wherein  Mr  Baxters  late  Repentance  is 
examined,  All  his  immodest   Calumnies  con- 


30  INTRODUCTION 

fated,  and  the  Grounds  of  Separation  further 
Cleared. — '  Ephralm  is  joyned  to  Idols :  let  him 
alone.'  Nor  can  we  clear  even  Baxter  of 
violence  towards  those  who  went  farther  than 
he,  as  oui'  extract  from  the  Sheet  for  the 
Ministry  proves.  But  Baxter  lived  to  grow 
sick  of  the  polemical  air  which  everyone  then 
had  to  breathe.  *  The  older  I  grew,'  he  wrote 
afterwards,  '  the  smaller  stress  I  laid  on  those 
controversies  and  curiosities  (though  still  my 
intellect  abhorreth  confusion),  as  finding  greater 
uncertainties  in  them  than  I  at  first  discerned, 
and  finding  less  usefulness  where  there  is 
greater  uncertainty.' 

A  few  more  titles  may  be  worth  quoting, 
since  they  give  a  vivid  impression  of  their 
author's  intention.  Burton,  another  of  those 
who  had  suffered  in  the  pillory,  very  soon  after 
Laud's  execution  issued  a  pamphlet  entitled 
'  The  Grand  Imposter  unmasked,  or  a  Detection 
of  the  Notorious  Hypocrisie  and  Desperate 
Impiety  of  the  late  Archbishop  (so  styled)  of 
Canterbury  cunningly  couched  in  that  written 
Copy  which  he  read  on  the  Scaffbld  at  his 
Execution.'  And  Burton  was  a  brother  clergy- 
man of  the  same  Church  as  Laud !  Some  of  the 
tracts  bore  titles  that  seem  curiously  irreverent 
to  modern  ears,  as  Burton's  Jesu-Worship  con- 


INTRODUCTION  31 

futed,  which  was  nothing  worse  than  an  argu- 
ment against  bowing  at  the  holy  Name. 
Prynne  was  always  happy  in  this  long-for- 
gotten art;  as  for  instance  his  Lord  Bishops 
none  of  the  Lord's  Bishops,  or  A  Gagge  for 
Long-Haird  Rattle-Heads,  or  '  The  Quakers 
Unmasked,  and  clearly  detected  to  be  but  the 
spawn  of  Romish  Frogs,  Jesuites  and  Franciscan 
Freers,  sent  fi'om  Rome  to  seduce  the  intoxi- 
cated giddy-headed  English  Nation.'  Prynne, 
who  was  always  in  hot  water  with  some  one, 
assailed  Milton  and  Lilburne  (a  prolific  pam- 
phleteer himself)  and  even  his  fellow-sufierer 
Burton,  and  fought  the  Commonwealth  as 
steadily  as  he  had  fought  the  Bishops;  he 
also  wrote  against  the  Papists,  the  Jews, 
and  the  Independents,  as  in  *  Independency,  Ex- 
amined, Unmask' d  and  Refuted,  1644.'  His 
chief  anti-episcopal  pamphlet  bears  the  delight- 
ful title — *  The  Unhishoping  of  Timothy  and 
Titus,  or  A  Briefe  elaborate  Discourse,  prooving 
Timothy  to  be  no  Bishop  (much  lesse  a  sole  or 
Diocaesan  Bishop)  of  Ephesus,  nor  Titus  of 
Crete;  and  that  the  power  of  ordination,  or 
imposition  of  hands,  belongs  jure  divino  to 
Presbyters  as  well  as  to  Bishops,  and  not  to 
Bishops  onely.'  Could  the  matter  be  put 
better?     Such    pamphlets   must   have   carried 


32  INTRODUCTION 

conviction  even  to  those  who  were  too  lazy 
to  read  beyond  the  title-page. 

Besides  an  extract  from  another  production 
of  Prynne,  I  have  given  the  reader  a  taste  of 
Bastwick,  who  for  a  peculiar  excellence  in 
scurrility  is  not  surpassed  even  by  his  fellow 
heroes  of  the  pillory.  The  Litany  is  interesting 
too  as  having  been  the  immediate  cause  of 
landing  him  in  the  Star  Chamber.  As  for 
these  men,  Prynne,  Burton,  and  Bastwick, 
it  is  certainly  no  matter  of  wonder  that  their 
writings  got  them  into  trouble.  But  the  unwise 
policy  of  the  King  in  making  martyrs  of  them 
did  more  for  the  cause  of  constitutionalism 
than  all  the  sheets  they  had  written. 

Into  the  midst  of  all  this  wrangling  over 
every  letter  of  Scripture,  every  detail  of  cere- 
monial, came  the  great  protest  of  George  Fox, 
crying  upon  men  to  give  up  externalism,  and 
to  follow  the  light  within.  The  truth  which 
the  Quakers  enunciated  was  just  what  the  age 
had  forgotten ;  but  unfortunately  these  men, 
soon  to  become  famous  for  their  peaceableness, 
began  not  less  violently  than  the  rest :  indeed 
their  strong  belief  in  personal  inspiftition  led 
them  to  a  conviction  of  their  own  infallibility, 
which  did  not  make  them  modest  or  temperate 
disputants.      The   large   literature    of   Quaker 


INTRODUCTION  33 

controversy  is,  if  less  sparkling,  hardly  more 
charitable  than  that  which  immediately  pre- 
ceded it ;  though,  it  must  be  confessed,  these 
devoted  prophets  had  some  cause  for  bitterness 
against  the  religious  world.  Fox  I  have  quoted 
as  the  fountain-head  and  most  reliable  guide 
to  the  great  principle  of  his  society,  and  a  title- 
page  of  Whitehead  for  the  glimpse  he  gives 
us  of  the  controversy  which  raged  around  the 
movement.  Penn  and  Fisher  I  pass  over  ^dth 
reluctance ;  for  Penn's  Battledore  is  an  interest- 
ing defence  of  the  use  of  Thee  and  Thou,  while 
his  Sandy  Foundation  Shaken  is  valuable  for 
its  attack  on  the  horrible  creed  of  Calvin,  and 
the  tritheism  resulting  therefrom ;  and  Fisher's 
Scorned  Quakers  Account  presents  a  most  vivid 
picture  of  his  rushing  into  Parliament  and  there 
delivering  his  message. 

One  great  name  I  have  omitted  from  this 
collection  because  it  is  so  amply  represented 
in  the  companion  volumes.  Milton  was  greater 
as  a  literaiy  and  political  than  as  a  religious 
pamphleteer ;  and,  as  it  was  hardly  possible  to 
include  his  works  in  all  the  volumes  of  this 
series,  I  have  thought  it  better  that  the  re- 
ligious volume,  already  so  overcrowded,  should 
be  the  one  to  suffer.  It  has  been  easier  to 
make  this  sacrifice   because  none  of  Milton's 


34  INTRODUCTION 

religious  pamphlets  quite  do  him  justice.  His 
Hirelings,  Reasons  of  Church  Government,  and 
Prelatical  Episcopacy  are  almost  too  long  to 
be  called  pamphlets  at  all,  while  his  True  Re- 
ligion, Heresy,  Schism  and  Toleration,  called 
forth  by  the  Declaration  of  Indulgence  of 
1672,  presents  nothing  more  creditable  than 
an  argument  against  extending  toleration  to 
Roman  Catholics. 

The  name  of  Milton  suggests  the  reflection 
that  some  great  poems  have  been  really  pam- 
phlets in  verse  ;  much  of  Milton's  controversial 
writing  was  summed  up  in  the  splendid  lines  of 
Lycidas,  which  begin — 

'How  well  could  I  have  spared  for  thee,  young  swain, 
Enow  of  such  as,  for  their  bellies'  sake, 
Creep,  and  intrude,  and  climb  into  the  fold  ! ' 

But  Diyden  was  the  great  example  of  a  pam- 
phleteer in  verse.  His  Religio  Laid,  which  is 
a  defence  of  the  English  Church,  and  the  better 
known  apology  for  that  of  Rome,  The  Hind 
and  the  Panther,  are  both  of  them  great  pam- 
phlets as  well  as  great  poems.  And  the  Re- 
ligio Laid  has  this  further  distinction,  that  it 
rises  quite  out  of  the  level  of  contemporary 
religious  controversy,  in  its  broad  and  genial 
temper  and  its  desire  to  include  even  the 
heathen  in  the  love  and  mercy  of  God. 


INTRODUCTION  35 

With  the  Restoration  Puritanism  in  its  old 
sense  is  dead.  It  had  been  tried  and  found 
intolerable  by  the  Enghsh  people :  it  no  longer 
attempts  to  capture  the  Church  organisation, 
but  in  a  milder  and  more  religious  form 
becomes  known  as  Dissent.  The  word  Non- 
conformist, which  had  been  always  used  to 
describe  a  Churchman  who  objected  to  some 
of  the  Church  ceremonies  and  doctrines,  gives 
place  to  the  word  which  presupposes  an 
organisation  dissenting  and  distinct  from  the 
National  Church.  The  Act  of  Uniformity 
draws  very  definitely  the  final  line  of  cleavage, 
and  men  like  Baxter  are  forced  to  resign  their 
cures,  some,  like  him,  to  continue  to  communi- 
cate at  their  parish  churches  as  ^noncon- 
formist ministers  but  conformist  parishioners,' 
the  greater  number  to  renounce  all  communion 
whatever.  England  is  now  definitely  divided 
into  separate  religious  bodies,  and  this,  with  the 
Romanising  policy  of  James  II.,  reopens  in  its 
acutest  form  the  problem  of  toleration.  In 
Lord  Halifax's  Letter  to  a  Dissenter  we  have 
the  Protestant  aspect  of  the  question  presented 
in  one  of  the  most  skilful  and  influential 
pamphlets  ever  written. 

Throughout  this  period,  however,  Dissent 
steadily    decHned,    and    the    interest    of    re- 


36  INTRODUCTION 

ligious  controversy  is  henceforward  on  the  side 
of  the  Church.  The  lessening  of  Dissent  as  an 
interest  opposed  to  the  Church  was  still  in  pro- 
gress when  Mosheim  wrote  in  1740,  though 
Calvinistic  ideas  were  at  that  time  on  the 
increase  among  Churchmen ;  and,  if  we  except 
the  Methodist  Revival — which  was  a  Church 
movement  so  long  as  it  was  a  genuine  revival, 
from  1739  till  John  Wesley's  death  in  1791— 
there  is  no  further  religious  movement  of  im- 
portance on  that  side. 

Our  next  two  pamphlets,  therefore,  written 
by  Charles  Leslie  and  Defoe  at  the  beginning 
of  the  eighteenth  century,  represent  the  Church 
on  the  one  side  in  the  hey-day  of  popularity 
and  Dissent  on  the  other  as  depressed  and  in 
danger  of  persecution.  Defoe's  immortal  satire. 
The  Shortest  Way  with  Dissenters,  so  subtle 
and  restrained  as  to  deceive  its  victims  into 
the  belief  that  it  was  written  by  one  of  them- 
selves, is  a  worthy  exposure  of  the  narrowness 
and  intolerance  which  were  the  curse  of  High 
Churchmen ;  though  at  the  same  time  it  helps 
one  to  understand  the  causes  which  led  to  that 
intolerance,  so  thoroughly  does  Defoe  present 
his  enemies'  case.  Charles  Leslie,  the  Non- 
juror, one  of  the  ablest  and  most  active  of 
pamphleteers,  was  a  typical  example  of  these 


INTRODUCTION  37 

Churchmen  who  united  to  great  learning  and 
piety  a  curious  inabiUty  to  understand  or 
appreciate  the  position  of  other  men.  This 
narrowness,  with  the  incurable  poHtical  bias 
that  possessed  them,  caused  the  succession 
of  Ken  and  Bancroft  to  die  out,  and  the 
flourishing  churchmanship  of  Queen  Anne's 
reign  to  give  place  to  the  unexampled  apathy 
of  the  Hanoverian  age.  The  Wolf  Stript 
shows  how  closely  akin  was  the  theology  which 
immediately  preceded  the  Hanoverian  period 
to  that  of  the  Catholic  Revival  which  marked 
its  close. 

Very  different  to  both  these  men  was  Swift, 
the  prince  of  pamphleteers.  Yet,  in  spite  of 
his  ftiilure  to  realise  many  of  the  Christian 
virtues.  Swift's  churchmanship  amounted  to  a 
genuine  passion,  without  being,  as  his  bio- 
grapher tells  us,  'either  intolerant  or  tantivy.' 
His  Argument  against  the  Abolishing  of 
(JJiristianity  brings  us  face  to  face  with  the 
Deistic  movement,  which,  though  it  died  out 
before  the  middle  of  the  century,  yet  had  a 
curiously  lasting  effect  upon  religion  in  England 
by  virtue  of  the  utilitarian  spirit  which  it 
helped  to  engender  among  the  leading  Christian 
apologists,  of  which  spirit  Swift's  humorous 
Argument  might  almost  seem  to  be  a  dehberate 


38  INTRODUCTION 

parody.  The  leading  Deists,  Toland,  Collins, 
Tindal,  were  controversialists  on  too  large  a 
scale  for  our  purpose  here. 

Of  the  Latitudinarian  movement  I  have  only 
quoted  a  section  of  William  Law's  brilliant 
answer  to  Bishop  Hoadly,  since  the  rest  of 
the  dreary  Bangorian  Controversy  would  hardly 
be  tolerable  to  modern  readers.  Law's  three 
answers  to  the  Bishop  are,  according  to  their 
latest  editor.  Canon  Gore,  among  the  dozen 
best  pamphlets  ever  written  for  wit,  brilliancy 
and  force ;  and  moreover  Hoadly  himself  did 
not  venture  to  reply  to  them.  Law,  therefore, 
apart  from  his  great  name,  deserves  a  place  in 
this  collection ;  and  his  inclusion  gives  us  a 
statement  of  the  typically  Anglican  position 
without  which  this  collection  might  seem  to 
give  undue  prominence  to  the  exponents  of 
other  creeds. 

Law  is  also  important  for  other  reasons.  He 
is  a  representative  of  the  mystics,  without 
whom  no  picture  of  religious  history  would  be 
complete.  He  is  a  link  between  the  Catholic 
school  of  Hooker,  Andrewes,  Jeremy  Taylor 
and  Ken,  and  that  of  the  Oxford  Movement, 
enforcing  for  instance  the  doctrine  of  the 
apostolic  succession,  which  appeared  so  fresh  and 
startling  when  pressed  anew  in  that  seventh  of 


INTRODUCTION  39 

the  Tracts  for  the  Times  with  which  I  con- 
clude this  collection.  He  w\as  also  far  ahead 
of  his  times  in  breadth  of  view ;  his  exposition 
of  the  Atonement,  for  instance,  in  the  Sinrit  of 
Love,  Spirit  of  Prayer  and  Appeal  to  all  that 
Doubt,  might  have  come  from  the  writers  of 
Lux  Mundi. 

Law  represents,  moreover,  the  best  type  of 
pamphleteer  that  religious  controversy  has  pro- 
duced. A  Latitudinarian  himself  in  a  higher 
sense  of  that  ill-used  word,  he  had  the  deepest 
sympathy  with  those  who  were  outside  his 
communion,  saying  once  that  he  would  like  the 
truth  no  less  because  Ignatius  Loyola,  or  John 
Bunyan,  or  George  Fox  w^ere  very  zealous  for 
it.  Who  else  could  have  written  such  words 
at  that  time  ?  Or  who  else  could  have  said  in 
an  age,  when  controversy  w^as  still  deformed 
by  virulent  personalities,  that  '  by  the  grace  of 
God  he  would  never  have  any  personal  con- 
tention with  anyone'?  To  those  w^ords  he 
kept  faithful  in  the  face  of  great  provocation, 
and  therefore  he  deserves  a  place  of  peculiar 
honour  in  the  strangely  assorted  crowd  of 
pamphleteers. 

With  this  gentle  voice  that  cried  in  the 
prosaic  wilderness  of  the  Hanoverian  period 
we  might  well  leave  the  subject  of  religious 


40 


INTRODUCTION 


pamphlets ;  for  their  ascendency  now  began  to 
wane  before  the  gathering  force  of  journalism. 
But,  passing  over  the  Methodist  and  the 
Evangelical  revivals,  which  are  distinguished 
rather  by  tracts'  than  by  pamphlets,  two 
great  names  arrest  our  attention;  the  one 
marking  the  tardy  completion  of  the  great  idea 
of  toleration,  the  other  leading  the  way  in  the 
great  religious  movement  of  our  own  times ; 
Sydney  Smith,  the  Anglican,  who  wrote  in 
defence  of  the  persecuted  Roman  Catholics, 
and  Newman,  the  convert  to  Rome,  who  led 
the  way  in  the  Anglican  Revival.  The  one 
brings  to  its  end  the  long  chapter  of  militant 
Protestantism,  as  Wiclif  had  begun  it;  the 
other  and  earlier  writer  rings  the  death  knell 
of  that  spirit  of  intolerance  which  had  accom- 
panied the  struggle.  Sydney  Smith,  devoid  of 
any  sympathy  with  Catholic  principles,  yet  by 
the  force  of  his  generous  wit,  and  in  sheer  pity 
for  those  whom  he  did  not  understand,  prepares 
the  way  for  the  recovery  of  the  Roman  Church. 
Toleration  has  come  at  last,  toleration  not  only 
for  Puritans  and  Papists,  but  for  all ;  and  that 
which  even  Milton  could  not  grasp  has  passed 
into  the  common  heritage  of  Englishmen. 

Thus  does  the  long  list   of  religious   pam- 
phleteers carry  us  through  the  various  stages 


INTRODUCTION  41 

of  the  shifting  and  bitter  struggle.  Many  whom 
I  would  have  liked  to  include  I  have  been 
compelled  to  omit ;  and  of  these,  besides  those 
already  mentioned,  I  would  here  name  two, 
which  I  left  out  with  special  reluctance,  John 
Wesley's  Plain  Account  of  the  People  called 
Methodists,  and  Whately's  Historic  Doubts. 

The  value  of  the  pamphlet  to  the  student 
of  history,  and  of  that  product  of  history  wliich 
we  call  contemporary  thought,  is,  I  am  con- 
vinced, far  greater  than  is  generally  imagined. 
Most  of  us  get  our  ideas  of  the  past  and  its 
present  developments  through  the  refi'acting 
medium  of  modern  writers,  and  some  of  us 
have  not  yet  escaped  from  the  thraldom  of 
Macaulay;  at  the  best  we  are  apt  to  judge 
the  past  by  the  lives  of  a  few  great  leaders. 
But  the  peculiar  usefidness  of  the  pamphlet 
is  that  it  gives  us  a  picture  of  the  popular 
mind.  It  presents  the  claims  of  the  various 
movements  which  struggled  for  supremacy, 
not  refined  for  an  intellectual  aristocracy, 
but  as  they  had  to  be  made  to  the  average 
man  of  the  world.  Pamphlets  thus  reveal  to  us 
not  only  the  mind  of  their  writers,  but  the  mind 
of  the  public  for  whom  they  were  written. 
Already  we  have  passed  out  of  the  ^drum 
and  trumpet '   notion   of  history,    already  we 


42  INTRODUCTION 

have  ceased  to  interpret  the  history  of  a 
people  by  the  record  of  its  kings,  but  we  still 
attach  undue  importance  to  the  lives  of  its 
leaders.  And  hero-worship,  though  a  useful 
and  pleasant  recreation,  does  not  reveal  to 
us  the  passions,  thoughts,  aspirations  and 
prejudices  of  a  people.  Historians  tell  us 
of  certain  causes  which  produced  certain 
revolutions ;  but  we  want  to  know  what 
caused  those  causes.  We  want  to  know  the 
social  life  of  the  people  and  what  they  were 
thinking  about,  the  talk  and  sermons  and 
books  and  pamphlets  which  set  things  moving. 
And,  if  the  talk  and  the  sermons  cannot  be 
recovered,  while  the  books  are  too  bulky  for 
all  but  a  few  specialists,  the  pamphlets,  which 
had  a  still  greater  popular  appeal,  can  easily 
be  put  within  our  reach.  Indeed,  when  we 
look,  we  find  these  pamphlets  preparing  the 
way  for  each  great  movement,  as  thought 
germinates  among  the  people.  Before  the 
Reformation,  we  see  Wiclif  solving  the  seed; 
before  even  the  autocratic  Tudor  dared  to 
attack  the  clergy.  Fish  is  setting  men  a-talking 
in  the  streets;  and  before  the  Church  revival 
of  our  own  day,  there  were  the  Tracts  for  the 
Times.  For  it  is  the  people  who  settle  the 
course   of  history,  the   people  who   can  read 


INTRODUCTION  43 

pamphlets  and  newspapers,  or  can  hear  them 
read ;  it  is  the  people  in  the  end  who  have  to 
decide,  even  nnder  a  Tudor  regime,  by  their 
acquiescence,  their  support,  or  their  rebellion. 
It  is  the  man  in  the  street,  as  he  trudges  to  his 
work  with  the  written  word  in  his  pocket,  who 
spreads  that  subtle  atmosphere  which  forms 
the  policy  of  kings  and  statesmen ;  and  it  is 
the  writer  that  can  persuade  him  to  listen  who 
creates  the  atmosphere.  Nor  has  it  ever  been 
otherwise ;  for  the  people  have  always  been  in 
a  majority,  even  when  they  chose  to  sell  their 
power  for  a  measure  of  protection  and  peace. 

But  the  pamplilet  has  now  melted  into  the 
journal,  the  monthly  review,  or  cheaply  printed 
book ;  and  those  which  are  still  printed  for  the 
propagation  of  young  causes  (though  far  more 
powerfid  than  is  commonly  thought)  are  written 
more  for  fiiends  than  for  enemies,  since  the 
public  no  longer  buys  broadsheets  of  the  hawker 
in  the  streets.  The  writing  thereof  is  almost 
a  lost  art,  and  what  we  have  gained  in  sobriety 
we  have  lost  in  racy  directness.  For  the  old 
writers  of  those  breezy  libels  at  least  said  what 
they  meant,  though  often  they  seem  to  us  to 
have  said  more  than  it  was  well  to  say.  And  the 
historian  of  future  times  can  hardly  have  such 
ready  m^^terial  as  the  pamphlet  affords  to  us ; 


44  INTRODUCTION 

for  our  newspapers  are  neither  so  concentrated 
nor  so  permanent  as  those  earlier  ^  paper 
lanthorns,'  and  our  reviews  are  not  so  popular. 
The  value  to  us  of  pamphlets  is  that  they  give 
the  spirit  of  the  movements  they  proclaim  just 
as  it  really  was ;  not  refined  for  the  expert, 
nor  yet  scamped  for  the  newsvendor,  but 
condensed  so  as  to  win  the  general  approval, 
or  acidified  so  as  to  bite  their  way  into  that 
brazen  conscience  which  is  the  hope  and  the 
despair  of  the  reformer.  Thus  in  the  pamphlet 
we  can  read  the  populace.  If  they  loved 
pungent  English  prose,  and  preferred  any 
excesses  to  mere  invertebrate  apathy  we  may 
take  what  heart  of  grace  we  can  of  our  respecta- 
bility ;  if  they  sometimes  bit  asunder  their  own 
tongues  with  very  wrath,  we  may  yet  remember 
that  there  were  always  men  who  could  say  with 
Richard  Baxter,  ^  While  we  wrangle  here  in  the 
dark,  we  are  dying,  and  passing  to  the  world 
that  will  decide  all  controversies ;  and  the 
safest  passage  thither  is  by  peaceable  holiness.' 

Percy  Dearmer. 


I 

JOHN  WICLIF 


[Wiclif  (c.  1320-1384)  did  not  become  a  pam- 
phleteer till  near  the  close  of  his  life,  about  1379, 
though  his  great  work  De  Dominio  had  appeared 
twenty  years  before.  His  translation  of  the  Bible, 
which  was  begun  about  the  same  time  and  finished 
1383-4,  was  an  even  more  important  sign  of  his 
appeal  to  the  people,  while  Langland's  Pie^^s  the 
Plmoman  (1380),  and  in  part  the  Peasant  Eevolt  of 
1381,  showed  that  others  had  been  busy  spreading 
his  famous  doctrine  of  Dominion.  He  is  the  first 
of  English  prose-writers,  and  his  prose  takes  the 
form  of  pamphlets  and  sermons,  besides  his  English 
Bible.  The  most  famous  of  his  tracts,  The  Wyket, 
is  a  sermon  on  the  Eucharist,  and  therefore  cannot 
legitimately  be  included  in  a  collection  of  pamph- 
lets. Besides  Septerti  Ilereses,  many  others  have 
come  down  to  us,  among  them  The  Church  and  her 
Members,  which  is  too  long  for  our  purpose,  and 
Vita  Sacerdotum,  which  deals  mainly  with  the  evil 
of  private  property  among  the  clergy.  Of  Wiclif  s 
writings  against  the  Friars  Mr  T.  Arnold,  the 
Editor  of  the  Oxford  edition,  gives  us  the  warning 
— "That  the  portrait  which  Wyclif  draws  of  his 
adversaries  is  an  entirely  fair  and  truthful  one 
cannot  seem  probable  to  any  reasonable  man. 
William  of  Wykeham,  the  model  prelate  of  those 
times,  was  not  a  saint,  but  he  certainly  was  still 

45 


46  JOHN  WICLIF 

less  that  monster  of  simony,  hypocrisy,  pride,  and 
sensuality  which  the  imagination  of  Wyclif  creates 
as  the  normal  character  of  an  English  Bishop. 
And  in  spite  of  abuses,  the  same  is  true  of  the 
monks  and  friars."  The  writings  of  Wyclif  and 
the  Lollards  ought,  he  says,  to  be  taken  in  connec- 
tion with  the  great  apogloetic  reply  of  Thomas  of 
Walden,  the  Doctrinale  Fidei.  Walden  however  is 
not  far  from  Wyclifs  narrowness  of  vision  ;  for,  if 
Wyclif  cannot  discern  a  virtue  in  the  friars,  Walden 
is  unable  to  discover  a  fault  in  them. 


SEPTEM  HERESES 
Contra  Septem  Peticiones.^ 

For  fals  men  multiplien  mony  bokes  of  the 
Chirche,  nowe  reendyiige  by  leve,^  and  nowe 
clowtyng  heresies,  therfore  men  schulden  be 
ware  of  these  two  perilles,  that  fals  men 
pynchyn  in  the  Pater  noster.  Thai  say  furst, 
that  speciale  prayere  aplied  by  lior  prelatis  is 
better  then  generale.  As,  one  Famulorum^ 
saide  of  a  frere  is  better  then  a  Pater  noster, 
with  other  thinges  even  ;  ffor  tho  Pater  noster 
is  moste  generale,  and  the  Famnlorum  moste 
special,  of  alle  the  prayers  that  God  hens.    But 

^  Seven  heresies  against  the  seven  petitions  in  the  Lord's 
prayer.  The  tract  is  divided  into  seven  sections,  each 
dealing  with  one  petition. 

2  rending  belief. 

^  The  name  given  to  the  Commemoration  of  the  living 
in  the  Canon  of  the  Mass, — Memento  Domine  farmilorum 
famularumque  tiiarum,  etc. 


JOHN  WICLIF  47 

we  schul  beleve  that  no  prayer  is  worthe,  but 
in  als  muche  as  God  hym  selfe  heris  hit,  and 
applies  this  prayere  to  profite  of  the  man. 
Lord!  whether  God  hyin  selfe  wolde  gladlier 
here  the  preyere  that  a  false  man  hade  con- 
treved  to  hym,  then  the  generale  preyere  that 
he  hym  selfe  made?  Wele  I  wote  that  this 
preyere  is  ful  of  witte  and  charite,  and  con- 
ceves  ^  alle  the  gode  that  a  man  schuld  aske  of 
God.  Hit  is  one  to  say  thus,  and  to  heghen 
Anticriste  over  oure  Lorde  Jesus  Criste,  that 
is  oure  alle  fader.  The  generalte  of  this 
preyere  lettes  not  oure  Lord  God  to  here 
syngulere  personys,  aftur  thei  ben  worthi. 

Secunda  Heresis. 

The  secunde  heresie  of  the  secunde  askyng  ^ 
sais,  that  these  prelatis  are  hedes  of  Gods 
rewme,^  for  thei  ben  hedus  of  holy  Chirche  by 
vertue  of  prelacie.  Ande  these  freres  bene 
men  of  holy  Chirche,  that  wole  here  be  glad- 
liere  hedes  of  holy  Chirche  then  othen  comyne  * 
men.  Lord!  sithen  God  and  iche  membre 
of  his  Chirche  bene  weddid  togedre,  as  oure 
bileve  sais,  whether  ony  of  these  prestus  schul 
be  dampned  in  helle  ?  Wele  I  wote  that  none 
schal  be  dampned  but  devellis ;  ande  if  ony  of 

1  comprises.         -  petition.         "  realm.         ^  common. 


48  JOHN  WICLIF 

these  devellis  were  capteyiie  of  his  Chh'che, 
then  God  and  the  devell  were  weddid  to- 
gedre.  But  as  oure  bileve  sais  that  ther  is  no 
comynynge  with  Crist  and  Belial,  then  thai  ben 
not  weddid.  Herfore  schal  we  trowe,  as  holy 
men  taught  of  two  thowsande  yere  byfore  that 
Sathanas  was  bounden,  that  holy  Chirche  is  of 
thos  that  God  has  ordeyned  to  dwelle  with 
hym  in  blisse,  of  what  state  so  thai  be,  prestes 
or  seculeres,  lordis  or  comyners,  ladies  or  pore 
wymmen,  that  endles  loven  God.  And  so  some 
partie  of  the  Chu'che  regnes  above  in  heven, 
and  summe  slepis  in  purgatorie,  and  summe 
feyghttes^  here  in  erthe.  But  at  the  day  of 
dome  schulle  alle  be  gedrid  ^  togedir,  and  regne 
in  heven  with  hor  spouse,  oure  Lord  Jesus 
Crist.  So  if  that  prelatis  or  freris  or  seculers 
sewe  ^  not  Criste  in  manere  of  hor  lyvynge,  thai 
were  never  Cristis  spouse,  ne  membris  of  his 
Chirche. 

Tertia  Heresis. 

Ye  thrid  heresie  of  the  thridde  askyng  sais, 
that  thai  knowe  the  wille  of  oure  Lord  God 
to  bringe  a  soule  to  heven  by  manere  of  hor 
preyyng.  But  certis  we  schul  trowe.  That  God 
may  not  be  moved  but   as  he  has  ordeyned 

^  fights.  -  gathered.  ^  sue,  follow. 


JOHN  WICLIF  49 

bifore  the  worlde  was  made ;  and  aftur  a  man 
deserves  while  he  lyves  here  schal  he  be  re- 
wardid  aftur  his  lyife,  outher  in  bhsse  other 
in  peyne,  notwithstondynge  oure  preyere.  But 
wel  I  wote  that  God  may  helpe  souhs  in  pur- 
gatorie,  and  make  hom  schoi-tliere  to  dwelle 
therinne,  after  that  thei  have  made  hom  worthi 
for  the  tyme  that  thei  have  lyved  here.  But 
we  schal  understonde  that  God  acceptis  the 
lyfe  that  men  lyven  here  wele,  ande  approves 
hit  for  soulis,  and  theraftur  hit  is  medefidle  for 
soules  that  bene  in  purgatorye.  Ande  if  we 
knowe  not  the  privete  of  God,  yit  nevertholes 
we  wote  that  hit  is  fully  rightwysenes,  that 
prayer  of  a  man  that  God  hath  ordeyned  to 
blisse  is  more  worthye  then  a  thowsande  of 
hom  that  schal  be  dampned.  Ffor  the  furst  is 
Gods  childe,  and  ordeyned  to  have  his  blis,  the 
secund  is  the  fendus  childe.  And  pray  he  never 
so  muche,  he  getes  not  the  blisse  of  heven,  for 
he  makes  hym  not  worthi.  Ande  this  faithe 
shulde  move  men  not  to  selle  hor  prayers,  but 
iche  man  life  bisiU,  iche  aftur  the  lawe  of  God  ; 
ffor  aftur  that  a  man  deserves  in  his  owne 
persoyne  schal  he  be  rewardid,  in  heven  or  in 
helle.  But  gode  lyve  of  a  man  may  helpe  hym 
that  lyves  with  hym,  to  amende  his  owne  lyfe, 
and  so  come  to  blisse.     And  so  private  almes 


5o  JOHN  WICLIF 

done  syngulerlyclie,  that  Crist  hymself  taught 
not,  dos  littel  gode  or  none  to  donor  of  siche 
almes  for  to  come  to  heven. 

QUARTA   HeRESIS. 

The  ferthe  heresie  of  the  ferthe  askynge  says, 
that  the  sacrid  ooste^  is  no  maner  of  brede, 
but  outher  ^  nought,  or  accident  withouten 
ony  sogett,^  and  so  worse  then  stones  or  ony 
other  body.*  And  when  ony  suche  men  asken 
the  sacrid  ooste,  thai  gyven  horn  worse  then 
stones,  as  thai  falsly  feynen.  Ffor  this  were 
ageynes  holy  writte,  as  Crist  hymself  sais. 
Lordus  and  prelatus  con  not  distroye  this 
heresie,  outher  for  hor  negligence,  or  for  tho 
wiles  of  Anticrist.  Lord  !  if  these  grete  lordus 
wold  gif  these  prestis  no  gode,  ne  freris,  bifore 
thai  schewid  her  bileve  in  this  poynt,  and 
groundid  hit  in  Gods  law  1  and  so  thai  myght 
come  to  bileve,  and  knowe  these  fals  heretikis. 
We  have  ofFt  tymes  saide  that  this  sacrid  ooste 

^  host.  -  either.  ^  subject. 

■*  Wiclif  was  constant  in  affirming  the  Real  Presence  in 
the  strongest  language,  as  here  that  the  Host  is  'very 
God's  Body '  :  his  objection  to  the  current  theory  of  tran- 
substantiation  was,  like  that  theory  itself,  purely  meta- 
physical. He  himself  used  the  word  Transubstantiation, 
but  attacked  the  current  theory  on  the  technical  ground 
that  '  accidents '  could  not  exist  without  a  substance  in 
which  to  inhere. 


JOHN  WICLIF  51 

is  verrey  Goddis  body  and  verrey  breede/ 
for  so  sais  holy  writte,  and  seyntes  of  Crist 
thowsandis. 

QuiNTA  Heresis. 

The  fyfFt  heresie,  contened  of  the  fylFt 
askynge,  says,  that  prestis  have  powere  to 
assoyle  ^  men  of  synne,  whom  ever  the  pope 
lymytes,  at  his  owne  vi^ille.  Ande  absolucions 
and  indnlgencis  bothe  fallen  in  mannes  chaffare 
by  byynge  and  sellynge ;  and  so  men  may 
Ughtly  for  money  be  assoyled  bothe  of  peyne 
and  of  synne,  be  thai  never  so  syimeful.  But 
oure  bileve  techis  us,  that  no  synne  is  forgyven 
but  if  God  hymself  forgif  furste  of  alle.  Ande 
if  his  trewe  vicare  acorde  to  Gods  wille,  he  may 
assoyle  of  synne  as  vicary  of  his  God.  But 
if  he  discorde  from  juggement  of  his  God,  he 
assoyles  not,  boste  he  never  so  muche.  Ande 
herfore  hit  is  nedeful  that  a  preste  have  two 
keyes,  of  powere  and  of  cunnyng,^  to  acorde  to 
Gods  wille.  Ffor  if  he  want  this  connyng  he 
nouther  byndes  ne  assoyles;  ne  hit  is  not 
byleve   that  ne  he   may   erre   in  this.     Ande 

^  bread.  Wiclif's  theory,  as  here  expressed,  worked 
out  more  fully  in  his  treatises,  was  that  which  came  to 
be  known  as  consubstantiation.  Luther  adopted  it,  but 
it  never  took  any  hold  in  England. 

-  absolve.  ^  wisdom. 


52  JOHN  WICLIF 

amonge  alle  heresies  or  blasphemyes  in  oure 
Chirche,  this  is  one  the  nioste  that  men  bene 
deceyved  inne.  And  if  a  man  speke  herof  by 
the  law  of  God,  he  schal  be  prisoned,  or  done 
to  deth  as  an  heretike. 

Sexta  Heresis. 

The  sexte  heresie,  contened  of  the  sexte 
askyng,  sais,  that  men  of  private  rehgioun  bene 
more  thikk  saved  then  men  that  kepe  trewly 
comyne  Cristus  rehgione ;  ffor,  as  thai  say,  thai 
have  helpe  of  hor  owne  brether,  specially  in 
honre  of  hor  deth,  of  body  and  of  soule,  and  so 
bene  not  lad  in  to  fendus^  temptacioun.  But 
oure  bileve  techis  us  that  comyn  Cristus  re- 
ligioun  passes  al  religioun  of  these  newe  ordris. 
Lorde !  whedur  we  schuld  trowe  that  Benet 
and  Dominik,  or  Ffraunces,  schuld  passe  the 
wisedome  of  Criste  ?  Or  whedur  hit  be  wise- 
dome  to  obeysche  to  siche  prelatis,  and  bye  the 
wille  of  Crist,  that  is  God  and  thine  abbot. 
Wele  I  wote  that  the  Cliirche  was  rewind  by 
Cristis  ordynaunce,  bifore  these  ordris  coomen 
inne,  better  then  hit  was  sithen.  Ande  so, 
sithen  these  religiouse  dyen  in  this  false  triste, 
and  have  lyved  in  ypocrisie  for  the  more  parte 
of  hore  lyve,  hit  semes  that  suche  gone  prively 

^  fiend's. 


JOHN  WICLIF  53 

til  lielle,  and  so  be  led  in  to  fendus  temptacionn, 
for  thai  ben  liardid  in  errour  of  hor  private 
ordris.  And  herfore  clepid  Crist  Mcliodeme 
fro  the  ordre  of  Phariseus,  sa\'yng  hym  and 
destroyyng  of  hit.  Withouten  doute  tho  ordy- 
naunce  that  Crist  hyni  selfe  ordeyned,  if  hit 
were  holden  clene,  hit  were  the  beste  of  other  ; 
ffor  therby  is  ilke  degre  myght  iche  man  be 
saved.  Ffor  then  wolde  charite  growe  more, 
and  envie  be  more  distroyed.  Thre  membris 
of  the  Chirche,  as  prestis,  knyghttus,  and 
laboreris,  wolden  be  sufficient  withouten  more 
diversite.     God  kepe  his  Chirche.     Amen. 

Septima  Heresis. 

The  sevent  heresie  and  the  last,  that  is  con- 
tened  of  the  sevent  askyng,  sais,  that  if  we 
wirke  by  counsel  of  these  newe  ordris  that 
leven^  the  ordynaunce  of  Criste,  we  schal 
redely  2  be  saved.  And  herby  bene  men  lad  in 
to  fendus  temptacioun,  and  wrappid  with  synne 
ageyne  the  Holy  Goste ;  and  this  is  the  werste 
synne  that  ever  may  falle  to  ony  man.  Wele  I 
wote  that  freris  wold  not  here  this  pubhscht  in 
the  pepul,  for  fallyng  of  hor  ordre.  But  sithen 
it  is  not  gi'oundid  in  bileve,  he  is  not  on  Gods 
halve  that  lettis  hit  for  freris.    Ande  we  schulde 

1  leave.  ^  of  necessity. 


54  JOHN  WICLIF 

trow  that  foundyng  of  abbays  and  frerus  and 
lettys  mon  ^  that  ne  thai  mowe  ^  falle  in  the  last 
synne.  And  herfore  alle  maner  of  men  schuld 
know  Cristis  ordynaunce,  and  travaile  therfore 
that  hit  were  clenly  kept ;  for  hit  is  moste  Hght, 
most  profitable,  and  moste  medefal.  O  Lord ! 
if  al  the  peple  in  Yngelonde  traveyled  in  alle 
cuntreyes,  and  falsed  the  kyngis  wille  movyng 
to  discordis  agheynes  the  pes  of  the  re^vme,^ 
who  wolde  not  say  that  suche  a  peple  were 
perilouse  in  Yngelonde?  mykel  more  if  newe 
religious  be  skaterud  in  Cristendame,  and 
gabben*  on  the  wille  of  Criste  that  is  oure 
kynge,  and  moven  not  to  pes  and  acorde  as 
Crist  and  his  apostilles  did.  What  wonder  is 
hit,  thou  batellis  and  other  perillus  come,  that 
Crist  has  bifore  saide?  God  kep  his  Chirche 
fro  fals  ypocrites  and  ungroundid  newe  statis,^ 
not  foundid  in  Crystes  lawe.  Wele  I  wote  that 
many  say  that  monye  of  hom  are  seyntus ;  but 
nowther  is  this  bileve,  ne  groundid  in  resone. 
Omnis  plantacio  quam  non  plantavit  pater 
mens,  eradicabitur,  dicit  Dominus  in  evangelio 
Johannis. 

1  Something  appears  to  be  omitted  here.         ^  must. 

2  peace  of  the  realm,         ^  scofif.         ■'  states  of  life. 


II 

SIMO]^  FISH 

[Simon  Fish,  who  died  of  the  plague  in  1531,  was 
a  member  of  Oxford  University  and  Gray's  Inn, 
which  he  entered  about  1525.     Having  taken  part 
in    a    play   which    held    Cardinal   Wolsey  up  to 
ridicule,  he  fled  into  the  Low  Countries.     But  he 
soon  came  back  to  London^  where  he  acted  as  agent 
for  the  sale  of  Tyndal's  New  Testament.     Foxe,  the 
martyrologist,  gives  two  contradictory   stories  of 
the  way  in  which  the  Supylicacyon  came  before  the 
king.     The  more  probable  of  these  states  that  it 
was  brought  to  Henry  by  two  London  merchants 
who  read  it  to  him  aloud.     When  they  had  done, 
the  king,  after  a  moment's  silence,  said  :  '  If  a  man 
should  pull  down  an  old  stone  wall,  and  begin  at 
the    lower    part,   the    upper    part    thereof  might 
chance  to  fall  upon  his  head,'  meaning  that  Fish's 
proposal  for  dealing  with  the  religious  houses  was 
hazardous  advice  until  the  royal  supremacy  had 
been  established.      Foxe  says  that  copies  of  the 
libel    were   '  strawne    abroade   in  the  streetes  of 
London,'  at  the  meeting  of  Parliament  and  there- 
fore probably  with  the  connivance  of  someone  in 
authority.     The  cardinal,  he  says,  set  about  dili- 
gently to  gather  them  up  that  they  should  not 
come  into  the  king's  hands  :  but,  hearing  that  the 
king  had  received  one  or  two  copies,  he  went  to 
him    saying,   'If   it  please  your   grace    here  are 
divers    seditious    persons    which    have    scattered 


S6  SIMON  FISH 

abroad  bookes  conteyning  manifest  errors  and 
heresies,'  and  desiring  his  grace  to  beware  of  them. 
*  Wherefore  the  king,  putting  his  hand  to  his 
bosome,  tooke  out  one  of  the  bookes  and  delivered 
it  unto  the  Cardinall." 

The  scene  is  dramatic  enough.  But  it  must  be 
remembered  that,  four  years  before  the  Suppli- 
cacyon  began  to  whet  the  royal  appetite,  Wolsey 
had  himself  suppressed  monasteries  at  Oxford  and 
elsewhere,  and  that  with  the  express  authority  of 
two  Papal  bulls,  nor  was  Wolsey's  action  without 
ample  precedent. 

The  Sup2ilicacyon  became  the  model  for  a  series  of 
pamphlets  couched  in  the  same  form,  three  of  which 
have  been  edited  by  Dr  Furnivall  with  the  Beggars 
in  the  Early  English  Text  Society  Series.  Fish's 
pamphlet  pretends  to  be  a  petition  from  the  beggars, 
complaining  that  they  have  been  robbed  of  their 
alms  by  the  superior  begging  of  the  friars  ;  it  then 
proceeds  to  a  general  denunciation  of  all  the  clergy. 

Sir  Thomas  More  wrote  in  reply  The  Sv.2)plicacyon 
of  Souiys,  which  is  a  folio.  In  it  More  makes  one 
of  the  souls  in  Purgatory  say  of  Fish  that,  '  He  is 
named  and  boasted  among  us  by  the  evil  angel  of 
his,  our  and  your  ghostly  enemy,  the  devil  ;  which 
as  soon  as  he  had  set  him  at  work  with  that  per- 
nicious book,  ceased  not  to  come  hither,  and  boast 
among  us  :  but  with  his  enmious  and  envious 
laughter,  gnashing  the  teeth  and  grinning,  he  told 
us  that  his  people  [the  Reformers]  had,  by  the 
advice  and  counsel  of  him  [the  Devil],  and  of  some 
heretics  almost  as  evil  as  he,  made  such  a  book  for 
beggars,  that  it  should  make  us  beg  long  ere  we 
got  aught.' 

On  the  general  question  of  clerical  immorality,  it 
may  be  admitted  that,  among  the  hosts  of  men  in 
orders,  there  were  many  who   found  the  vow  of 


SIMON  FISH  57 

celibacy  too  great  a  strain.  Such  laxity  could  not 
have  been  uncommon  at  this  time,  for  Wolsey 
himself  was  the  father  of  a  family,  as  were  many 
of  the  Popes,  nor  does  the  public  conscience  seem 
to  have  been  offended  at  this.  A  little  later  we 
iind  Cardinal  Pole  admitting  that  the  enforcement 
of  celibacy  on  all  the  clergy  was  a  mistake.  As  for 
the  charges  of  immorality  and  corruption  against 
the  monasteries,  it  may  safely  be  stated  that 
historians  no  longer  consider  them  borne  out  by 
the  evidence  which  recent  research  has  collected. 
Their  wealth,  too,  was  popularly  supposed  to  be 
much  greater  than  it  was.  Fish's  errors  in  this 
matter  are  alluded  to  in  the  notes.] 


A  SUPPLICACYON  FOR  THE  BEGGERS 
To  THE  King  Cure  Souereygne  Lorde 

Most  lamentably  complejnetli  theyre  wofull 
mysery  unto  youre  highnes  youre  poore  daily 
bedemen  the  wretched  hidous  monstres  (on 
whome  scarcely  for  horror  any  yie  dare  loke) 
the  foule  unhappy  sorte  of  lepres,  and  other 
sore  people,  nedy,  impotent,  blinde,  lame,  and 
sike,  that  live  onely  by  almesse,  howe  that 
theyi'e  nombre  is  daily  so  sore  encreased  that 
all  the  almesse  of  all  the  weldisposed  people 
of  this  youre  realme  is  not  half  ynough  for  to 
susteine  theim,  but  that  for  verey  constreint 
they  die  for  hunger.  And  this  most  pestilent 
mischief  is   comen   uppon   youre   saide   poore 


58  SIMON  FISH 

beedmen  by  the  reason  that  there  is  yii  the 
tjmes  of  yoiire  noble  predecessours  passed 
craftily  crept  ynto  this  your  reahiie  an  other 
sorte  (not  of  impotent  but)  of  strong  puissaunt 
and  counterfeit  holy,  and  ydell  beggers  and 
vacabundes  whiche  syns  the  tyme  of  theyre  first 
entre  by  all  the  craft  and  wilinesse  of  Satan 
are  nowe  encreased  under  your  sight  not  onely 
into  a  great  nombre,  but  also  ynto  a  kingdome. 
These  are  (not  the  herdes,^  but  the  ravinous 
wolves  going  in  herdes  clothing  devouring 
the  flocke)  the  Bishoppes,  Abbottes,  Priours, 
Deacons,  Archedeacons,  SufFraganes,  Prestes, 
Monkes,  Chanons,  Freres,  Pardoners,  and  Som- 
ners.^  And  who  is  abill  to  nombre  this  idell 
ravinous  sort  whiche  (setting  all  laboure  a  side) 
have  begged  so  importunately  that  they  have 
gotten  ynto  theyre  hondes  more  then  the  therd 
part  of  all  youre  Realme.  The  goodliest  lord- 
shippes,  maners,  londes,  and  territories,  are 
theyrs.  Besides  this  they  have  the  tenth  part 
of  all  the  corne,  medowe,  pasture,  grasse,  wolle, 
coltes,  calves,  lambes,  pigges,  gese,  and  chikens. 
Over  and  bisides  the  tenth  part  of  every  ser- 
vauntes  wages  the  tenth   part   of  the  wolle, 

1  Shepherds. 

-  The  Summoner  or  Apparitor  was  the  officer  employed 
to  cite  parties  before  the  ecclesiastical  courts. 


SIMON  FISH  59 

milke,  hony,  waxe,  chese,  and  butter.  Ye^ 
and  they  loke  so  narowly  uppon  theyre  prov- 
fittes  that  the  poore  wifves  must  be  countable 
to  theym  of  every  tenth  eg  or  elles  she  gettith 
not  her  ryghtes  at  ester  shalbe  taken  as  an 
heretike.  hereto  have  they  theire  foure  oiFering 
dales,  whate  money  pidl  they  yn  by  probates 
of  testamentes,  privy  tithes,  and  by  mennes 
ofFeringes  to  theyre  pilgremages,  and  at  theyre 
first  masses?  Every  man  and  childe  that  is 
buried  must  pay  sumwhat  for  masses  and 
diriges^  to  be  song  for  him  or  elles  they  will 
accuse  the  dedes^  frendes  and  executours  of 
heresie.  whate  money  get  they  by  mortuaries,* 
by  hearing  of  confessions  (and  yet  they  wil  kepe 
therof  no  counceyle)  by  halowing  of  churches 
altares  superaltares  chapelles  and  belles,  by 
cursing  of  men  and  absolving  theim  agein  for 
money  ?  what  a  multitude  of  money  gather  the 
pardoners  in  a  yere  ?  Howe  moche  money  get 
the  Somners  by  extorcion  yn  a  yere,  by  assestyng 
the  people  to  the  commissaries  court  and  after- 
ward releasing  th^  apparaunce  for  money? 
Finally,  the  infinite  nombre  of  begging  freres 

^  Yea. 

'^  Dirges,  from  Dirige  in  conspectu  tuo  viam  meam  in  v.  8 
of  Psalm  v.,  the  first  of  the  Dirge  Psahns.  ^  dead's. 

■*  A  mortuary  was  a  gift  left  by  a  dying  man  to  his  parish 
church.  5  the. 


6o  SIMON  FISH 

whate  get  they  yn  a  yere  ?  Here  if  it  please 
your  grace  to  marke  ye  shall  se  a  thing  farre 
out  of  ioynt.  There  are  withyn  youre  realme  of 
Englond,  lii.  thousand  parisshe  churches.^  And 
this  stonding  that  there  be  but  tenne  hous- 
houldes  yn  every  parisshe  yet  are  there  five 
hundreth  thousand  and  twenty  thousand  hous- 
houldes.  And  of  every  of  these  houshouldes 
hath  every  of  the  five  ordres  of  freres  a  peny  a 
quarter  for  every  ordre,  that  is  for  all  the  five 
ordres  five  pens  a  quarter  for  every  house.  That 
is  for  all  the  five  ordres  xx.d,  a  yere  of  every 
house.  Summa  five  hundreth  thousand  and 
twenty  thousand  quarters  of  angels. 

That  is  cclx.  thousand  half  angels.  Summa 
cxxx.  thousand  angels.  Summa  totalis  xliii. 
thousand  poundes  and  cccxxxiii.li.  vi.s.  viii.d. 
sterling,  wherof  not  foure  hundreth  veres  passed- 
they  had  not  one  peny.  Oh  grevous  and 
peynfull  exactions  thus  yerely  to  be  paied. 
from  the  whiche  the  people  of  your  nobill  pre- 
decessours  the  kinges  of  the  auncient  Britons 
ever  stode  fre.  And  this  wil  they  have  or 
els   they  wil  procure  him  that  will  not  give 

^  'That  is  one  plain  lie  to  beo;in  with,'  is  More's  com- 
ment. Fish  counts  every  hamlet  as  a  parish  ;  and  then 
argues  that  if  each  '  parish '  has  on  an  average  ten  house- 
holds, and  each  hovisehold  gives  one  penny  per  quarter  to 
each  of  the  five  mendicant  orders,  then  £43,333,  6s.  8d.  is 
given  annually  to  the  Friars  alone.  -  years  ago. 


SIMON  FISH  6 1 

it  theim  to  be  taken  as  an  heretike.  whate 
tiraimt  ever  oppressed  the  people  like  this  cruell 
and  vengeable  generacion  ?  whate  subiectes 
shall  be  abill  to  helpe  theire  prince  that  be 
after  this  facion  yerely  polled?  whate  good 
christen  people  can  be  abill  to  socoure  us  pore 
lepres  blinde  sore,  and  lame,  that  be  thus 
yerely  oppressed  ?  Is  it  any  merveille  that 
youre  people  so  compleine  of  povertie?  Is  it 
any  merveile  that  the  taxes  fiftenes  and  sub- 
sidies that  your  grace  most  tenderly  of  gi'eat 
compassion  hath  taken  emong  your  people  to 
defend  theim  from  the  thretened  mine  of  theire 
comon  welth  have  bin  so  sloughtfully,  ye  pain- 
fully levied?  Seeing  that  almost  the  utmost 
peny  that  mought  have  bin  levied  hath  ben 
gathered  bifore  yerely  by  this  ravinous  cruell 
and  insatiabill  generacion.  The  danes  nether 
the  saxons  yn  the  time  of  the  auncient  Britons 
shidde  never  have  ben  abill  to  have  brought 
theire  armies  from  so  farre  hither  ynto  your 
lond  to  have  conquered  it  if  they  had  had  at 
that  time  suche  a  sort  of  idell  glotons  to  finde 
at  home.  The  nobill  king  Arthur  had  never 
ben  abill  to  have  caried  his  armie  to  the  fote 
of  the  mountaines  to  resist  the  coming  do^vne 
of  lucius  the  Emperoure  if  suche  verely  ^  exac- 

^  yearly. 


62  SIMON  FISH 

tion  had  ben  taken  of  his  people.  The  grekes 
had  never  ben  abill  to  have  so  long  continued 
at  the  siege  of  Troie  if  they  had  had  at  home 
suche  an  idell  sort  of  cormorauntes  to  finde. 
The  auncient  Romains  had  never  ben  abil  to 
have  put  all  the  hole  worlde  under  theyre 
obeisaunce  if  theyi-e  people  had  byn  thus  yerely 
oppressed.  The  Turke  nowe  yn  youre  tynie 
shulde  never  be  abill  to  get  so  moche  grounde 
of  cristendome  if  he  had  yn  his  empire  suche 
a  sort  of  locustes  to  devoure  his  substance. 
Ley  then  these  sommes  to  the  forseid  therd 
part  of  the  possessions  of  the  realme  that  ye 
may  se  whether  it  drawe  nighe  unto  the  halfe 
of  the  hole  substaunce  of  the  realme  or  not, 
so  shall  ye  finde  that  it  draweth  ferre  above.  ^ 
Nowe  let  us  then  compare  the  nombre  of  this 
unkind  idell  sort  unto  the  nombre  of  the  laye 
people  and  we  shall  se  whether  it  be  in- 
differently shifted  or  not  that  they  shuld 
have  half. 

Compare  theim  to  the  nombre  of  men,  so  are 

1  The  monasteries  came  to  own  about  one  third  of  the 
land,  and  one  third  of  the  tithe,  of  England.  The  losers  on 
the  tithe  were  of  course  the  parishes  :  as  for  the  land,  the 
monks  were  very  good  landlords.  The  total  value  of 
oil  ecclesiastical  and  monastic  property,  including  the  uni- 
versities was  given  by  the  Valor  Ecclesiasticus  (the  State 
return  of  1535)  as  £320,280,  10s.  Of  this  only  about  one 
half  was  monastic  property. 


SIMON  FISH  63 

tliej  not  the  .C.  person.^  Compare  theim  to 
men  wimen  and  children,  then  are  they  not 
the  CCCC.  parson  ^  yn  nombre.  One  part 
therfore  yn  foure  hundreth  partes  devided 
were  to  moche  for  theim  except  they  did 
laboure.  whate  an  unequal  burthen  is  it  that 
they  have  halfe  with  the  multitude  and  are  not 
the  .CCCC.  parson  of  theire  nombre  ?  whate 
tongue  is  abill  to  tell  that  ever  there  was  eny 
comon  welth  so  sore  oppressed  sins  the  worlde 
first  began  ? 

H  And  whate  do  al  these  gi'edy  sort  of  sturdy 
idell  holy  theves  with  these  yerely  exactions 
that  they  take  of  the  people  ?  Truely  nothing 
but  exempt  theim  silves  from  th  obedience  of 
your  grace.^  Nothing  but  translate  all  rule 
power  lordishippe  auctorite  obedience  and 
dignite  from  your  gi-ace  unto  theim.  Nothing 
but  that  all  your  subiectes  shulde  fall  ynto 
disobedience  and  rebellion  ageinst  your  grace 
and  be  under  theim.  As  they  did  unto  your 
nobiU  predecessour  king  John :  *  whiche 
forbicause  that  he  wolde  have  punisshed 
certeyn    traytours    that    had    conspired    with 

^  One  person  in  a  hundred.  -  One  person  in  400. 

^  Fish's  appeal  throughout  to  Tudor  despotism  is  sig- 
nificant, 
■*  The  absolutist  Fish  even  denounces  Magna  Carta. 


64  SIMON  FISH 

the  fi-enche  king  to  have  deposed  him  fi'om 
his  crowne  and  dignite  (emong  the  whiche  a 
clerke  called  Stephen^  whome  afterward 
ageinst  the  kinges  will  the  Pope  made 
Bisshoppe  of  Caunterbnry  was  one)  enterdited 
his  Lond.^  For  the  whiche  mater  your  most 
nobiU  realme  WTongfuUy  (alas  for  shame)  hath 
stond  tiibutaiy  (not  unto  any  kind  temporall 
prince,  but  unto  a  cruell  develisshe  bloudsupper 
dronken  in  the  blonde  of  the  sayntes  and 
marters  of  christ)  eversins.  Here  were  an  holy 
sort  of  prelates  that  thus  cruelly  coude  punisshe 
suche  a  rightuous  kinge,  all  his  realme,  and 
succession  for  doing  right. 

*r  Here  were  a  charitable  sort  of  holy  men 
that  coude  thus  enterdite  an  hole  realme,  and 
plucke  awey  th  obedience  of  the  people  from 
theyi'e  naturall  liege  lorde  and  kinge,  for  none 
other  cause  but  for  his  rightuousnesse.  Here 
were  a  blissed  sort  not  of  meke  herdes  but  of 
bloudsuppers  that  coude  set  the  frenche  king 
uppon  suche  a  rightuous  prince  to  cause  hym 
to  lose  his  crowne  and  dignite  to  make  effusion 

^  The  noble  Stephen  Langton,  who  led  the  revolt  against 
King  John  and  forced  the  Great  Charter  from  him. 
Langton  had  been  appointed  to  the  archiepiseopal  see 
by  Pope  Innocent  III. 

-  Land.  Innocent  put  England  under  an  interdict  on 
John's  attempting  to  exclude  Langton  from  the  see.  The 
'  nobill '  John  then  became  the  Pope's  vassal. 


SIMON  FISH  6s 

of  the  blonde  of  his  people,  oneles  this  good 
and  blissed  king  of  gi*eate  compassion,  more 
fearing  and  lamenting  the  sheding  of  the  blond 
of  his  people  then  the  losse  of  his  crowue  and 
dignite  agaynst  all  right  and  conscience  had 
submitted  him  silf  unto  tlieym.  0  case  most 
horrible  that  ever  so  nobill  a  king  Realme, 
and  succession  sliulde  thus  be  made  to  stoupe 
to  suche  a  sort  of  bloodsuppers.  where  was 
his  swerde,  power,  crowne,  and  dignite  become 
wherby  he  mought  have  done  iustice  yii  this 
maner?  where  was  their  obedience  become 
that  shuld  have  byii  subiect  under  his  liighe 
power  yn  this  mater?  Ye  where  was  the 
obedience  of  all  his  subiects  become  that  for 
mainteinaunce  of  the  comon  welth  shulde  have 
holpen  him  manfidly  to  have  resisted  these 
bloudsuppers  to  the  shedinge  of  theyre  blonde  ? 
was  not  all  to  gither  by  theyre  polyce  translated 
from  this  good  king  unto  theim.  Ye  and  what 
do  they  more?  Truely  nothing  but  applie 
theym  silves  by  all  the  sleyghtes  they  may  have 
to  do  with  every  mannes  wife,  every  mannes 
doughter  and  every  mannes  mayde  that  cuk- 
koldrie  and  baudrie  shulde  reigiie  over  all 
emong  your  subiectes,  that  no  man  shulde 
knowe  his  owne  childe  that  theyre  bastardes 
might  enherite  the  possessions  of  every  man 


66  SIMON  FISH 

to  put  the  right  begotten  children  clere  beside 
theire  inheritaunce  yn  subversion  of  all  estates 
and  godly  ordre.  These  be  they  that  by  theire 
absteyning  from  mariage  do  let  the  generation 
of  the  people  wher  by  all  the  realme  at  length 
if  it  shulde  be  continued  shall  be  made  desert 
and  inhabitable.^ 

IT  These  be  they  that  have  made  an  hundreth 
thousand  ydell  hores  yn  your  realme  whiche 
wolde  have  gotten  theyre  lyving  honestly,  yn 
the  swete  of  theyre  faces  had  not  theyre 
superfluous  rychesse  illected  theym  to  unclene 
lust  and  ydelnesse.  These  be  they  that  corrupt 
the  hole  generation  of  mankind  yn  your  realme, 
that  catche  the  pokkes  of  one  woman,  and  here 
theym  to  an  other,  that  be  brent  wyth  one 
woman,  and  here  it  to  an  other,  that  catche 
the  lepry  of  one  woman,  and  here  it  to  an 
other,  ye  some  one  of  theym  shaU  host  emong 
his  felawes  that  he  hath  medled  mth  an 
hundreth  wymen.  These  be  they  that  when 
they  have  ones  drawen  mennes  wives  to  such 
incontinency  spende  awey  theire  husbondes 
goodes  make  the  wimen  to  runne  awey  from 
theire  husbondes,  ye,  rynne  awey  them  silves 
both   with   wif    and    goods,    bring   both   man 

1  The  apparent  contradiction  between  this  sentence 
and  the  last  is  noted  by  More 


SIMON  FISH  67 

wife  and  children  to  ydelnesse  theft  and 
beggeri. 

U  Ye  who  is  abill  to  nombre  the  greate  and 
brode  botomles  occean  see  full  of  evilles  that 
this  mischevous  and  sinful  generacion  may 
laufiilly  bring  uppon  us  unponisshed,  where  is 
youre  swerde,  power,  crowne,  and  dignitie, 
become  that  shuld  punisshe  (by  punisshement 
of  deth  even  as  other  men  are  punisshed)  the 
felonies,  rapes,  murdres,  and  treasons  committed 
by  this  sinftdl  generacion?  where  is  theire 
obedience  become  that  shulde  be  under  your 
hyghe  power  yn  this  mater?  ys  not  all  to 
gither  translated  and  exempt  from  your  gi*ace 
unto  theim?  yes  truely.  whate  an  infinite 
nombre  of  people  might  have  ben  encreased  to 
have  peopled  the  realme  if  these  sort  of  folke 
had  ben  maried  like  other  men.  what  breche 
of  matrimonie  is  there  brought  yn  by  theim? 
suche  truely  as  was  never  sins  the  worlde  began 
emong  the  hole  multitude  of  the  hethen. 

^  who  is.  she  that  wil  set  her  hondes  to  get 
.iii.d.  a  day  and  may  have  at  lest  .xx.d.  a  day  to 
slepe  an  houre  with  a  frere,  a  monke,  or  a  prest  ? 
what  is  he  that  wolde  laboure  for  a  grote  a 
day  and  may  have  at  lest  .xii.d.  a  day  to  be 
baude  to  a  prest,  a  monke,  or  a  frere?  whate 
a  sort  are  there  of  theime  that  mari  prestes 


68  SIMON  FISH 

sovereigne  ladies  but  to  cloke  the  prestes  yn- 
continency  and  that  they  may  have  a  living  of 
the  prest  theime  silves  for  theire  laboiire? 
Howe  many  thousandes  doth  suche  lubricite 
bring  to  beggeiy  theft  and  idelnesse  which 
shuld  have  kept  theire  good  name  and  have  set 
theim  silves  to  worke  had  not  ben  this  excesse 
treasure  of  the  spiritualtie  ?  ?  whate  honest 
man  dare  take  any  man  or  woman  yn  his  service 
that  hath  ben  at  suche  a  scole  with  a  spiritual 
man  ?  Oh  the  grevous  shipwrak  of  the  comen 
welth,  whiche  yn  auncient  time  bifore  the 
coming  yn  of  these  ravinous  wolves  was  so 
prosperous :  that  then  there  were  but  fewe 
theves :  ye  theft  was  at  that  tyme  so  rare  that 
Cesar  was  not  compelUd  to  make  penalte  of 
deth  uppon  felony  as  your  grace  may  well 
perceyve  yn  his  institutes.  There  was  also  at 
that  tyme  but  fewe  pore  people  and  yet  they 
did  not  begge  but  there  was  given  theim 
ynough  unaxed,  for  there  was  at  that  time 
none  of  these  ravinous  wolves  to  axe  it 
from  theim  as  it  apperith  yn  the  actes  of  th 
appostles.^     Is   it   any   merveill   though   there 

^  The  reference,  seemingly,  is  to  Acts  iv.  32-35.  But 
the  fact  that  there  was  not  then  any  that  lacked  is  attri- 
buted in  Acts  iv.  to  the  communism  of  these  early 
Christians,  which  communism  was  in  Fish's  time,  after 
all,  practised  by  monks  and  by  monks  alone.     The  monks 


SIMON  FISH  6^ 

be  nowe  so  many  beggers,  theves,  and  ydell 
people  ?     Nay  truely. 

IF  whate  remedy :  make  lawes  ageynst  theim. 
I  am  yn  doubt  whether  ye  be  able :  Are  they 
not  stronger  in  your  owne  parliament  house 
then  your  silfe  ?  whate  a  nombre  of  Bisshopes, 
abbotes,  and  priours  are  lordes  of  your  parlia- 
ment? are  not  all  the  lerned  men  in  your 
realme  in  fee  with  theim  to  speake  yn  your 
parHament  house  for  theim  ageinst  your 
crowne,  dignitie,  and  comen  welth  of  your 
realme  a  fewe  of  youre  owne  lerned  counsell 
onely  excepted?  whate  la  we  can  be  made 
ageinst  theim  that  may  be  advaylable  ?  who  is 
he  (though  he  be  greved  never  so  sore)  for  the 
murdre  of  his  auncestre  ravisshement  of  his 
wyfe,  of  his  doughter,  robbery,  trespas, 
maiheme,^  dette,  or  eny  other  offence  dare  ley 
it  theyre  charge  by  any  wey  of  accion,  and  if  he 
do  then  is  he  by  and  by  by  theyre  wilynesse 
accused  of  heresie.  ye  they  wiU  so  handle  him 
or  he  passe  that  except  he  will  here  a  fagot  for 
theyre  pleasure  he  shal  be  excommunicate  and 
then  be  all  his  accions  dasshed.  So  captyve 
are  your  lawes  unto  theym  that  no  man  that 

were  still  the  great  relievers  of  the  poor  ;   though  the 
Friars  had  lost  their  early  fervour  and  become  for  the 
most  part  mere  religious  tramps. 
^  Maiming. 


70  SIMON  FISH 

they  lyst  to  excommunicat  may  be  admitted 
to  sue  any  accion  in  any  of  your  courtes.  If 
eny  man  yn  your  sessions  dare  be  so  hardy  to 
endyte  a  prest  of  eny  suche  cryme  he  hath  or 
the  yere  go  out  suche  a  yoke  of  heresye  leyd  in 
his  necke  that  it  maketh  him  wisshe  that  he 
had  not  done  it.  Your  grace  may  se  whate  a 
worke  there  is  in  London,  ho  we  the  bisshoppe 
rageth  for  endyting  of  certayn  curates  of  ex- 
torcion  and  incontinency  the  last  yere  in  the 
warmoU    quest.  ^      Had   not   Richard    hunne  "^ 

^  The  warmoll,  or  warnraall  quest  was  held  in  the  city 
once  a  year  to  redress  vice.     Quest  ==  Inquest. 

•^  Richard  Hunne,  a  merchant  tailor  of  the  City,  refused 
to  give  a  mortuary  for  an  infant  child  that  had  died  in 
the  parish  of  St  Mary  Malfellow,  whereupon  the  priest  of 
the  parish  cited  Hunne  in  the  spiritual  court  of  London. 
Hunne  took  the  bold  step  of  issuing  a  writ  of  praemunire 
against  the  priest  on  the  ground  that  the  spiritual  court 
was  under  the  foreign  jurisdiction  of  the  legate.  The 
clergy  were  furious  ;  and,  as  the  best  way  of  crushing 
Hunne,  they  apprehended  him  on  a  charge  of  heresy. 
He  submitted  as  to  the  heresy,  and  offered  to  do  penance  ; 
but  he  would  not  drop  his  action  against  the  parson. 
Whereupon  he  was  remanded  to  the  Lollard's  Tower,  and 
two  days  afterwards  was  found  there,  hanged  in  his  own 
silken  girdle.  The  case  created  much  excitement.  At  the 
inquest  a  verdict  of  wilful  murder  was  returned  against 
Horsey,  the  Chancellor  of  the  Bishop  of  London.  The 
Bishop  appealed  to  Wolsey,  and  though  the  proceedings 
could  not  be  stopped,  he  got  Horsey  off,  as  Fish  complains 
further  on,  with  a  payment  of  £600.  The  miserable 
church-officials  proceeded  with  the  charge  of  heresy 
against  the  dead  body  of  Hunne,  and  it  was  dug  up  and 
burned  two  weeks  after  his  death. 


SIMON  FISH  71 

commenced  accyon  of  premunire  ageiiist  a  prest 
he  had  bin  yet  a  lyve  and  none  heretik  at  all 
but  an  honest  man. 

^  Dyd  not  dyvers  of  your  noble  progenitours 
seynge  theyre  crowne  and  dignite  runne  ynto 
ruyne  and  to  be  thus  craftely  translated  ynto 
the  hondes  of  this  myschevous  generacyon 
whiche  the  statute  of  mortmayne^  was  one? 
to  the  intent  that  after  that  tyme  they  shulde 
have  no  more  gyven  imto  theim.  But  whate 
avayled  it  ?  have  they  not  gotten  ynto  theyre 
hondes  more  londes  sins  then  eny  duke  in 
ynglond  hath,  the  statute  notwithstonding  ? 
Ye  have  they  not  for  all  that  translated  ynto 
theyre  hondes  from  your  grace  half  your  kyng- 
dome  thoroughly?  The  hole  name  as  reason 
is  for  the  auncientie  of  your  kingdome  whiche 
was  bifore  theyrs  and  out  of  the  whiche  theyrs 
is  growen  onely  abiding  with  your  grace  ?  and 
of  one  kyngdome  made  tweyne :  the  spirituall 
kingdome  (as  they  call  it)  for  they  wyll  be 
named   first,    And   your    temporall   kingdome, 

1  The  Statute  of  Mortmain  (1279)  was  enacted  to  prevent 
any  more  lands  passing  into  the  hands  of  the  Church, 
except  by  special  licence  of  the  king.  Church-lands  owed 
no  military  service  to  the  king ;  while  the  overlord  lost 
all  chance  of  recovering  such  lands  by  escheat,  since  there 
could  be  no  failure  of  heirs  in  a  corporation.  Magna 
Carta  had  already  forbidden  lands  to  be  given  to  religious 
houses — in  spite  of  the  '  rightuous '  King  John. 


72  SIMON  FISH 

And  whiche  of  these,  ii.  kingdomes  suppose  ye 
is  like  to  overgrowe  the  other,  ye  to  put  the 
other  clere  out  of  memory  ?  Truely  the  king- 
dome  of  the  bloudsuppers  for  to  theym  is  given 
daily  out  of  your  kingdome.  And  that  that 
is  ones  gyven  theim  comith  never  from  theim 
agein.  Suche  lawes  have  they  that  none  of 
theim  may  nether  gyve  nor  sell  nothing. 

whate  lawe  can  be  made  so  stronge  ageinst 
theim  that  they  other  with  money  or  elles  with 
other  policy  will  not  breake  and  set  at  nought  ? 
whate  kingdome  can  endure  that  ever  gyvith 
thus  from  him  and  recey\^eth  nothing  agein? 
0  howe  all  the  substaunce  of  your  Realme 
forthwith  yoiu*  swerde,  power,  crowne,  dignite, 
and  obedience  of  your  people,  rynneth  hedlong 
jnto  the  insaciabill  whyrlepole  of  these  gredi 
goulafres  ^  to  be  swalowed  and  devoured. 

U  Nether  have  they  eny  other  coloure  to 
gather  these  yerely  exaccions  ynto  theyre 
hondes  but  that  they  sey  they  pray  for  us  to 
God  to  delyver  our  soules  out  of  the  paynes  of 
13urgatori  without  whose  prayer  they  sey  or  at 
lest  without  the  popes  pardon  we  coude  never 
be  delivered  thens  whiche  if  it  be  true  then  is 
it  good  reason  that  we  gyve  theim  all  these 
thinges  all  were   it   C.  times   as   moche,  But 

1  Gulphs,  from  0.  Fr.,  Goulfre. 


SIMON  FISH  73 

there  be  many  men  of  greate  litterature  and 
iudgeraent  that  for  the  love  they  have  unto 
the  trouth  and  unto  the  comen  welth  have 
not  feared  to  put  theim  silf  ynto  the  greatest 
infamie  that  may  be,  in  abiection  of  all  the 
world,  ye  in  perill  of  deth  to  declare  theyre 
oppinion  in  this  mather  whiche  is  that  there  is 
no  purgatory  but  that  it  is  a  thing  invented 
by  the  covitousnesse  of  the  spiritualtie  onely 
to  translate  all  kingdomes  from  other  princes 
unto  theim  and  that  there  is  not  one  word 
spoken  of  hit  in  al  holy  scripture.  They  sey 
also  that  if  there  were  a  purgatory,  And  also  if 
that  the  pope  with  his  pardons  for  money  may 
deliver  one  soule  thens :  he  may  deliver  him 
aswel  without  money,  if  he  may  deliver  one,  he 
may  deliver  a  thousand :  yf  he  may  deliver  a 
thousand  he  may  deliver  theim  all,  and  so  destroy 
purgatory.  And  then  is  he  a  cruell  tyraunt  with- 
out all  charite  if  he  kepe  theim  there  in  pryson 
and  in  paine  till  men  will  give  him  money. 

Lyke  wyse  saie  they  of  all  the  hole  sort  of 
the  spiritueltie  that  if  they  will  not  pray  for 
no  man  but  for  theim  that  gyve  theim  money 
they  are  tyrauntes  and  lakke  charite,  and  suffer 
those  soules  to  be  punisshed  and  payned  un- 
cheritably  for  lacke  of  theyre  prayers.  These 
sort  of  folkes  they  call  heretikes,  these  they 


74  SIMON  FISH 

burne,  these  they  rage  ageinst,  put  to  open 
shame  and  make  theim  bere  fagottes.  But 
whether  they  be  heretikes  or  no,  well  I  wote 
that  this  purgatory  and  the  Popes  pardons  is 
all  the  cause  of  translacion  of  your  kingdome 
so  fast  into  their  hondes  wherfore  it  is  mani- 
fest it  can  not  be  of  christ,  for  he  gave  more 
to  the  temporall  kingdome,  he  hym  silfe  paid 
tribute  to  Cesar  he  toke  nothing  from  hym 
but  taught  that  the  highe  powers  shulde  be 
always  obeid  ye  he  him  silf  (although  he 
were  most  fre  lorde  of  all  and  innocent)  was 
obedient  unto  the  highe  powers  unto  deth. 
This  is  the  great  scabbe  why  they  will  not  let 
the  newe  testament  go  a  brode  yn  your  moder 
tong  lest  men  espie  that  they  by  theyre  cloked 
ypochrisi  do  translate  thus  fast  your  kingdome 
into  theyre  hondes,  that  they  are  not  obedient 
unto  your  highe  power,  that  they  are  cruell, 
unclene,  unmerciful,  and  ypochrites,  that  thei 
seke  not  the  honour  of  Christ  but  their  owne, 
that  remission  of  sinnes  are  not  given  by  the 
popes  pardon,  but  by  Christ,  for  the  sure 
feith  and  trust  that  we  have  in  him.  Here 
may  your  grace  well  perceyve  that  except  ye 
suffer  theyre  ypocrisie  to  be  disclosed  all  is 
like  to  runne  ynto  theire  hondes  and  as  long 
as  it  is  covered  so  long  shall  it  seme  to  every 


SIMON  FISH  75 

man  to  be  a  greate  and  ympiete  not  to  gyve 
theim.  For  this  I  am  sure  your  grace  thinketh 
(as  the  truth  is)  I  am  as  good  as  my  father, 
whye  may  I  not  aswell  gyve  theim  as  moche 
as  my  father  did.  And  of  this  mynd  I  am 
sure  are  all  the  loordes  knightes  squirs  gentil- 
men  and  yemen  in  englond,  ye  and  untill  it  be 
disclosed  all  your  peoole^  will  thinke  that 
your  statute  of  mortmayne  was  never  made 
with  no  good  conscience  seing  that  it  taketh 
away  the  liberte  of  your  people  in  that  they 
may  not  as  lawfully  by^  theire  soules  out  of 
purgatory  by  gyving  to  the  spiritualte  as  their 
predecessours  did  in  tymes  passed. 

^  Wherfore  if  ye  Avill  eschewe  the  ruyne  of 
your  crowne  and  dignitie  let  their  ypocrisye  be 
uttered  and  that  shalbe  more  spedfull  in  this 
mater  then  all  the  lawes  that  may  be  made  be 
they  never  so  stronge.  For  to  make  a  lawe  for 
to  punisshe  eny  offender  except  it  were  more  fit 
to  give  other  men  an  ensample  to  beware  to 
committe  suche  like  offence,  whate  shuld  yt 
avayle.     Did    not    doctour   Alyn^   most  pre- 

1  People.  -  Buy. 

^  Wolsey's  Chaplain.  '  By  the  said  power  Legantine, 
he  [Wolsey]  kept  also  general  visitations  through  the 
Realme,  sending  Doct.  John  Allein,  his  Chaplein,  riding 
in  his  gown  of  Velvet,  and  with  a  great  traine  to  visite 
all  religious  houses.'     (Foxe,  p.  260,  3rd  ed.) 


76  SIMON  FISH 

sumptuously  nowe  yn  your  tyme  ageynst  all 
this  allegiaunce  all  that  ever  he  coude  to  pull 
fi'om  you  the  knowledge  of  suche  plees  as 
long^  unto  your  hyghe  courtes  unto  an  other 
court  in  derogacion  of  your  crown  e  and 
dignite  ?  Did  not  also  doctor  Horsey  ^  and 
his  complices  most  heynously  as  all  the  world 
knoweth  murdre  in  pryson  that  honest 
marchaunt  Richard  hunne  ?  For  that  he  sued 
your  writ  of  premunere  against  a  prest  that 
wrongfully  held  him  in  ple^  in  a  spirituall 
court  for  a  mater  wherof  the  knowlege  belonged 
unto  your  hyghe  courtes.  And  whate  punisshe- 
ment  was  there  done  that  eny  man  may  take 
example  of  to  be  w^are  of  lyke  offence  ?  Truely 
none  but  that  the  one  payd  five  hundreth 
pouudes  (as  it  is  said  to  the  bildinge  of  your 
sterre  chamber)  and  when  that  payment  was 
ones  passed  the  capteyns  of  his  kingdome 
(because  he  faught  so  manfully  ageynst  your 
crowne  and  dignitie)  have  heped  to  him 
benefice  upon  benefice  so  that  he  is  rewarded 
tenne  tymes  as  moche.  The  other  as  it  is  seid 
payde  sixe  hundreth  poundes  for  him  and  his 
complices  wdiiche  forbicause  that  he  had  lyke 

1  Belong. 

-  The  Chancellor  of   the  Bishop   of  London.     See  for 
the  Hunne  affair,  note  on  p.  TO. 
=^  Plea. 


SIMON  FISH  77 

wyse  faught  so  manfully  ageynst  your  crowne 
and  clignite  was  ymmecliatly  (as  he  had 
opteyned  your  most  gracyous  pardon)  promoted 
by  the  capiteynes  of  his  kingdome  with  benefice 
upon  benefice  to  the  value  of  .iiii.  tymes  as 
moche.  who  can  take  example  of  this  punisshe- 
ment  to  be  ware  of  suche  like  offence  ?  who  is 
he  of  theyre  kingdome  that  will  not  rather 
take  courage  to  committe  lyke  offence  seying 
the  promocions  that  fill^  to  this^  men  for 
theyre  so  offending.  So  weke  and  blunt  is 
your  swerde  to  strike  at  one  of  the  offenders  of 
this  croked  and  pervers  generacyon. 

IF  And  this  is  by  the  reason  that  the  cliief 
instrument  of  youre  lawe  ye  the  chief  of  your 
counsell  and  he  whiche  hath  youre  swerde  in 
his  bond  to  whome  also  all  the  other  instru- 
mentes  are  obedient  is  alweys  a  spirituell  man 
whiche  hath  ever  suche  an  inordinate  love 
unto  his  owne  kingdome  that  he  will  mainteyn 
that,  though  all  the  temporall  kingdoms  and 
comonwelth  of  the  worlde  shulde  therfore 
utterly  be  undone,  Here  leve  we  out  the 
gretest  mater  of  all  lest  that  we  declaring  suche 
an  horrible  carayn  of  evyll  ageinst  the  ministres 
of  iniquite  shulde  seme  to  declare  the  one 
onely  faute  or  rather  the  ignoraunce  of  oure 

^  fell.  '  these. 


78  SIMON  FISH 

best  beloved  ministre  of  riglitousnesse  whiche 
is  to  be  hid  till  he  may  be  lerned  by  these  small 
enormitees  that  we  have  spoken  of  to  knowe  it 
pleynly  him  silf.  But  whate  remedy  to  releve 
us  your  poore  sike  lame  and  sore  bedemen  ? 
To  make  many  hospitals  for  the  relief  of  the 
poore  people  ?  Nay  truely.  The  mos  the 
worse,  for  ever  the  fatte  of  the  hole  foundacion 
hangeth  on  the  prestes  berdes.  Dyvers  of  your 
noble  predecessours  kinges  of  this  realme  have 
gyven  londes  to  monasteries  to  give  a  certein 
somme  of  money  yerely  to  the  poore  people 
wherof  for  the  aunciente  of  the  tyme  they  give 
never  one  peny,  They  have  lyke  wyse  given  to 
them  to  have  a  certeyn  masses  said  daily  for 
theim  wherof  they  sey  never  one.  If  the 
Abbot  of  Westminster  shulde  sing  every  day  as 
many  masses  for  his  founders  as  he  is  bounde 
to  do  by  his  foundacion.  M.  monkes  were  to 
fewe.  wherfore  if  your  grace  mil  bilde  a  sure 
hospitall  that  never  shall  faile  to  releve  us  all 
your  poore  bedemen,  so  take  from  theim  all 
these  thynges.  Set  these  sturdy  lobies  a  brode 
in  the  world  to  get  theim  wives  of  theire  owne, 
to  get  theire  living  with  their  laboure  in  the 
swete  of  theire  faces  according  to  the  com- 
maundement  of  god.  Gene.  iii.  to  gyve  other 
idell  people  by  theire  example  occasion  to  go 


SIMON  FISH  79 

to  laboure.  Tye  these  holy  idell  theves  to  the 
cartes  to  be  whipped  naked  about  every  market 
towne  til  they  will  fall  to  laboure  that  they  by 
theyre  importunate  begging  take  not  away  the 
almesse  that  the  good  christen  people  wolde 
give  unto  us  sore  impotent  miserable  people 
your  bedemen.  Then  shall  aswell  the  nombre 
of  oure  forsaid  monstruous  sort  as  of  the 
baudes,  hores,  theves,  and  idell  people  decreace. 
Then  shall  these  great  yerely  exaccions  cease. 
Then  shall  not  youre  swerde,  power,  crowne, 
dignite,  and  obedience  of  your  people,  be  trans- 
lated from  you.  Then  shall  you  have  full 
obedience  of  your  people.  Then  shall  the  idell 
people  be  set  to  worke.  Then  shaU  matrimony 
be  moche  better  kept.  Then  shal  the  genera- 
tion of  your  people  be  encreased.  Then  shall 
your  comons  encrease  in  richnesse.  Then  shall 
the  gospell  be  preached.  Then  shall  none 
begge  oure  almesse  from  us.  Then  shal  we 
have  ynough  and  more  then  shall  suffice  us, 
whiche  shall  be  the  best  hospitall  that  ever  was 
founded  for  us.  Then  shall  we  daily  pray  to 
god  for  your  most  noble  estate  long  to  endure. 

Domine  salvum  fac  regem. 


Ill 

JOHN  KNOX 


[This  short  extract  is  the  concluding  passage 
of  one  of  the  six  tracts  published  by  Knox  in 
1558. 

Knox,  whose  general  views  on  the  subject  are 
amusingly  dealt  with  in  R.  L.  Stevenson's  well- 
known  essay,  was  led  to  write  this  pamphlet 
against  feminine  rule,  by  the  difficulties  of  the  time. 
The  fate  of  Protestantism  seemed  to  lie  in  the 
hands  of  five  women  ;  Catherine  de  Medici,  Queen 
of  France ;  Marie  of  Guise,  Queen  Regent  of  Scot- 
land ;  her  daughter  Mary,  afterwards  Queen  of 
Scots  ;  Mary  Queen  of  England,  and  the  Princess 
Elizabeth.  Of  these,  all  were  strong  opponents 
of  Protestantism,  except  the  last,  who  was  in 
confinement  at  the  time  and  of  little  account. 
As  it  happened,  before  the  year  was  out, 
the  death  of  Mary  and  the  accession  of  Eliza- 
beth made  Knox's  argument  singularly  unfortunate. 
It  had  at  least  proved  Knox's  courage  ;  and  fierce 
and  unlovely  as  his  character  was,  it  was  truly 
said  of  him,  that  he  never  feared  the  face  of 
man.  An  answer,  to  which  reference  will  be  found 
on  p.  119,  was  written  by  Aylmer,  afterwards 
Bishop  of  London,  in  1559,  that  is,  after  Elizabeth's 
accession.] 

So 


JOHN  KNOX  8 1 

From 
'  THE  FIRST  BLAST  OF  THE  TRUMPET 
AGAINST    THE    MONSTRUOUS 
REGIMENT  OF  WOMEN'    1558. 

Cursed  Jesabel  of  England,  with  the  pesti- 
lent and  detestable  generation  of  papistes, 
make  no  litle  bragge  and  boast,  that  they  have 
triumphed  not  only  against  Wyet,  but  also 
against  all  such  as  have  entreprised  any  thing 
against  them  or  their  proeedinges.  But  let  her 
and  them  consider,  that  yet  they  have  not 
prevailed  against  god,  his  throne  is  more  high, 
than  the  length  of  their  homes  be  able  to 
reache.  And  let  them  further  consider,  that 
in  the  beginning  of  their  bloodie  reigne,  the 
harvest  of  their  iniquitie  was  not  comen  to  full 
maturitie  and  ripenes.  No,  it  was  so  gi-ene,  so 
secret  I  meane,  so  covered,  and  so  hid  with 
hypocrisie  that  some  men  (even  the  servantes 
of  God)  thoght  it  not  impossible,  but  that 
wolves  might  be  changed  in  to  lambes,  and 
also  that  the  vipere  might  remove  her  naturel 
venom.  But  God,  who  doth  revele  in  his  time 
apointed  the  secretes  of  hartes,  and  that  will 
have  his  iudgementes  iustified  even  by  the 
verie  wicked,  hath  now  geven  open  testimonie 
of  her  and  their  beastlie  crueltie.     For  man 


82  JOHN  KNOX 

and  woman,  learned  and  unlearned,  nobles  and 
men  of  baser  sorte,  aged  fathers  and  tendre 
damiselles,  and  finailie  the  bones  of  the  dead, 
aswell  women  as  men  have  tasted  of  their 
tjrannie,  so  that  now  not  onhe  the  blood  of 
father  Latimer,  of  the  milde  man  of  God  the 
bishop  of  Cantorburie,  of  learned  and  discrete 
Ridley,  of  innocent  ladie  Jane  dudley,  and 
many  godlie  and  worthie  preachers,  tlmt  can 
not  be  forgotten,  such  as  fier  hath  consumed, 
and  the  sworde  of  tyrannic  moste  unjvstlie 
hath  shed,  doth  call  for  vengeance  in  the  eares 
of  the  Lord  God  of  hostes :  but  also  the  sobbes 
and  teares  of  the  poore  oppressed,  the 
groninges  of  the  angeles,  the  watch  men  of  the 
Lord,  yea  and  everie  earthlie  creature  abused 
by  their  tyrannic  do  continuallie  crie  and  call 
for  the  hastie  execution  of  the  same.^  I  feare 
not  to  say,  that  the  day  of  vengeance,  whiche 
shall  apprehend  that  horrible  monstre  Jesabel 
of  England,  and  suche  as  maintein  her 
monstruous  crueltie,  is  alredie  apointed  in  the 
counsel  of  the  Eternall;  and  I  verehe  beleve 
that  it  is  so  nigh,  that  she  shall  not  reigne  so 

^  Yet  Knox  himself  advised  the  Scottish  Parliament  of 
1560  to  make  a  third  offence  in  celebrating  Mass  punish- 
able by  death. 

2  By  Nov.  17  of  the  year  when  this  was  written  Mary 
Tudor  was  dead,  and  with  her  the  system  of  which  she 
had  been  the  centre. 


JOHN  ICNOX  83 

long  in  tyrannie,"  as  hitherto  she  hath  done, 
when  God  shall  declare  him  selfe  to  be  her 
ennemie,  when  he  shall  poure  fiirth  contempt 
upon  her,  according  to  her  crueltie,  and  shal 
kindle  the  hartes  of  such,  as  somtimes  did 
favor  her  with  deadly  hatred  against  her,  that 
they  may  execute  his  iudgementes.  And 
therfore  let  such  as  assist  her,  take  hede  what 
they  do.  For  assuredlie  her  empire  and  reigne 
is  a  wall  without  foundation :  I  meane  the 
same  of  the  authoritie  of  all  women.  It  hath 
bene  underpropped  this  blind  time  that  is  past, 
with  the  foolishnes  of  people,  and  with  the 
wicked  lawes  of  ignorant  and  tyrannous 
princes.  But  the  fier  of  Goddes  worde  is 
alredie  laide  to  those  rotten  proppes  (I  include 
the  Popes  lawe  with  the  rest)  and  presentlie 
they  burn,  albeit  we  espie  not  the  flame  :  when 
they  are  consumed,  (as  shortlie  they  will  be,  for 
stuble  and  drie  timbre  can  not  long  indure  the 
fier)  that  rotten  wall,  the  usurped  and  uniust 
empire  of  women,  shall  fall  by  it  self  in  despit 
of  all  men,  to  the  destruction  of  so  manie,  as 
shall  labor  to  uphold  it.  And  therfore  let  all 
man  be  advertised,  for  the  trumpet  hath  ones 
blowen. 


IV 
THOMAS  CARTWRIGHT 

[Thomas  Cartwright  (1535-1603),  became  intimate 
at  Geneva  with  Beza,  the  uncompromising  successor 
of  Calvin.  In  1570  lie  returned  to  England,  and 
was  elected  Margaret  Professor  of  Divinity  at 
Cambridge  and  Fellow  of  Trinity.  His  lectures 
there  brought  him  under  suspicion  of  heresy,  and 
he  persuaded  all  the  fellows  and  scholars  of  his 
college  to  refuse  to  wear  the  surplice.  On  his 
refusing  to  retract  he  was,  in  1570,  deprived  of  his 
professorship  by  Whitgift,  then  Vice-Chancellor  of 
the  University  and  Master  of  Trinity.  He  did  not, 
however,  at  once  separate  from  the  Church,  there 
being  yet  hope  that  the  English  Church  might  give 
up  Catholicism  for  Calvinism.  In  the  Parliament 
of  1571  a  definite  attempt  was  made  to  effect  this 
by  a  proposal  to  substitute  a  Protestant  confession 
of  faitli  for  tlie  Thirty-nine  Articles  and  to  omit 
the  office  for  the  consecration  of  bisliops.  The 
Parliament  defeated  this,  and  passed  instead  a 
statute  making  subscription  to  the  Articles  obliga- 
tory, wliereupon  some  hundred  clergymen  were 
deprived  for  refusing  to  subscribe.  In  1572  two 
bills  were  again  brought  in  b.y  Wentworth  for 
Calvinising  the  Church  :  but  the  Qneen  interfered, 
and  refused  to  allow  any  bill  respecting  religion  to 
be  received  till  it  had  been  approved  by  Convoca- 
84 


THOMAS  CARTWRIGHT  85 

tion.  This  called  forth  'An  Admonition  to 
Parliament,  1572,'  in  the  same  year. 

It  was  drawn  up  by  Field,  a  minister,  assisted  by 
Wilcox,  and  was  revised  by  some  others.  It 
attacked  episcopacy  witli  much  severity,  offered  a 
scheme  for  a  Presbyterian  Cimrch,  and  petitioned 
Parliament  for  a  discipline  more  consonant  with 
the  Word  of  God  and  the  reformed  Churches. 
On  October  12th,  the  authors  were  committed  to 
Newgate,  but  the  Admonition  was  allowed  to  be 
printed. 

The  imprisonment  of  Field  and  Wilcox  caused 
Cartwright  to  write  his  Second  Admonition,  from 
which  the  following  extracts  are  taken.  Cart- 
wright  also  wrote,  '  An  Exhortation  to  the  Bishops 
to  deal  brotherly  with  their  Brethren,'  and  an- 
other, '  Exhortation  to  the  Bishops  to  answer  the 
Admonition.'  The  Bishops  appointed  Whitgift 
to  reply  with  'An  Answeare  to  a  certain  Libel 
entitled  an  Admonition  to  the  Parliament,"  which 
was  revised  before  publication  by  Archbishop 
Parker  and  others.  Cartwright  in  1573  retorted 
with  'A  Keplye  to  an  Answere  made  by  Dr  Whit- 
gifte  againste  the  Admonition  to  the  Parliament.' 
Whitgift  then  published  'The  Defence  of  the 
Aunswere  to  the  Admonition  against  the  Replye  of 
T.  C,  1574.'  Next  year  appeared  'The  Second 
Replie,'  and  in  1577  'The  Rest  of  the  Second 
Replie  of  Thomas  Cartwright  agaynst  Master 
Doctor  Vuhitgifts  Second  Ansvuer  touching  the 
Church  Discipline,'  which  ended  the  controversy. 

In  spite  of  Marprelate's  exultation  (p.  118)  at 
Cartwright'y  having  the  last  word,  we  find 
Whitaker,  a  very  competent  and  impartial  judge, 
speaking  contemptuously  of  Cartwright's  share  in 
the  controversy.  In  opinions  there  was  little  differ- 
ence between  the  two  disputants  :  Whitgift  (p.  127) 


86  THOMAS  CARTWRIGHT 

asserted  that  Christ  had  left  the  external  polity  of 
the  Church  entirely  an  open  question  ;  and  in  fact 
his  real  difference  with  Cartwright  was  that  he  was 
more  latitudinarian. 

Cartwright  was  by  far  the  most  learned  and 
respected  of  the  Puritan  divines,  he  enjoyed  too 
the  protection  of  Leicester.  He  was  imprisoned 
in  1584  and  1590,  but  was  treated  indulgently,  and 
ended  his  days  at  Warwick,  where,  according  to 
Harrington,  he  grew  rich,  and  was  honoured  by 
his  party  as  a  patriarch.  Cartwright  was  in  many 
ways  the  real  Father  of  Puritanism  ;  his  Book  of 
Discipline  (1580)  was  to  the  Puritans  very  much 
what  the  Prayer  Book  was  to  Churchmen.  Of  the 
two  main  extracts  which  we  give,  the  first  is  an 
early  specimen  of  those  criticisms  of  the  Prayer 
Book  which  were  continued  in  such  profusion 
throughout  the  next  century.  Curiously  wooden 
as  most  of  Cartwright's  objections  must  appear  to 
modern  readers,  he  at  least  had  the  insight  to 
recognise  that  the  Church  services  were  Catholic  in 
their  whole  nature,  a  fact  to  which  custom  blinded 
many  succeeding  generations  of  Churchmen.  Of 
the  whole  Vestiarian  controversy,  Aubrey  Moore 
says  that  from  the  first  the  real  question  it  con- 
cealed was,  '  Is  the  English  Church  to  retain  a  real 
episcopacy,  and  defend  its  continuity  with  the 
Church  of  St  Augustine,  or  is  it  to  become  a 
Presbyterian  sect  ? '  Of  our  concluding  extract  it 
is  important  to  observe  that  it  marks  a  new  phase. 
With  Cartwright,  Puritanism  has  become  con- 
sciously Presbyterian.  The  year  1573  saw  the  first 
Presbytery  in  England.] 

Note. — The  notes  in  italics  are  Cartwright's  own 
marginal  headings  and  scriptural  references. 


THOMAS  CARTWRIGHT  87 

From 

A  SECOND  ADMONITION  TO  THE 

PARLIAMENT 

Now  to  the  matter,  I  say,  that  we  are  so 
scarce  come  to  the  outward  face  of  a  Church 
rightly  reformed,  that  although  some  truth  bee 
taught  by  some  Preachers,  yet  no  Preacher 
may  without  great  danger  of  the  lawes,  utter 
all  truth  comprised  in  the  booke  of  God.  It  is 
so  circumscribed  and  wrapt  within  the  compasse 
of  such  Statutes,  such  Penalties,  such  Iniunc- 
tions,  such  Advertisements,^  such  Articles,  such 
Canons,  such  sober  Caveats,  and  such  manifold 
Pamphlets,  that  in  manner  it  doth  but  peepe 
out  from  behind  the  screen.  The  lawes  of  the 
Land,  the  booke  of  Common-prayer,  the  Queens 
Iniunctions,  the  Commissioners  Advertisements, 
the  Bishops  late  Canons,  L'mdwoods  Provincials, 
every  Bishops  Articles  in  his  Diocesse,  my  Lord 
of  Canturburies  sober  Caveats,  in  his  Licences 
to  Preachers,  and  his  high  Court  of  Prerogative, 
or  grave  fatherly  faculties,  these  together,  or 
the  worst  of  them  (as  some  of  them  be  too  bad) 
may  not  be  broken  or  offended  against,  but  with 
more  danger  then  to  offend  against  the  Bible. 
To  these  subscribing  and  subscribing  again,  and 

^  The  Advertisements  was  the  name  of  an  important 
book  of  discipline  issued  by  Archbishop  Parker  in  1566. 


88  THOMAS  CARTWRIGHT 

the  third  subscribing,  are  required  :  for  these, 
Preachers,  and  others,  are  endited,  are  fined, 
are  prisoned,  are  excommunicated,  are  banished, 
and  have  worse  things  threatened  them :  And 
the  Bible  that  nuist  have  no  further  scope, 
then  by  these  it  is  assigned.  Is  this  to  professe 
Gods  word  ?  is  this  a  reformation  ?  He  that 
could  not  abide  strange  fire  in  the  old  Law,  but 
burnt  them  that  used  it,  what  will  he  do  to  us 
in  the  new  Law,  that  erefct  a  new  and  strange 
Course,  or  Word,  to  rule  his  Church  by?^  Wiat 
did  the  Pope  but  so  ?  he  did  suffer  Gods  Word 
to  have  a  course  as  farre  as  it  pleased  him,  so 
that  he  might  have  the  whole  authority  above 
it ;  so  did  the  Popish  Church  :  But  we  say 
the  Word  is  above  the  Church,  ^  then  surely  it 
is  above  the  English  Church,  and  above  all  these 
bookes  afore  rehearsed.  If  it  be  so,  why  are 
they  not  over-ruled  by  it,  and  not  it  by  them  ? 


As  for  the  Convocation  house,  I  told  you 
before  what  it  was,  and  what  may  be  looked 
for  at  their  hands,  and  somewhat  more  shall  be 
said  of  it  hereafter.  If  that  were  said  for  the 
Bible,  which  is  said  for  the  book  of  Common 
praiei*,  and  which  God   saith  in  his   law  for^ 

1  1  Lev.  X.  12.  -  Eph.  ii.  20.  ^  Deut.  iv.  2. 


THOMAS  CARTWRIGHT  89 

his  word,  then  were  the  deahng  upright  and 
good.  Now  if  they  meane,  by  [not  repugnant] 
that  it  is  consonant  in  all  and  every  the 
contents  thereof  with  the  word  of  God,  that 
can  they  never  prove.  But  could  they  prove 
that,  yet  they  snare  the  Church  of  God  between 
that  book  and  other  books,  which  they  obtrude 
with  straight  charge  to  be  observed ;  which 
books  do  differ  among  themselves  :  as  the  book 
of  Common  Praier,  and  the  Iniunctions  about 
wafers :  the  booke  of  Common  prayer  and  the 
advertisements  about  the  Chm^ch  vestures  :  the 
Canons  against  the  pontifical,  in  not  ordering 
of  Ministers  sine  titulo,  the  Preface  of  the  last 
book  of  Homilies,  and  of  the  last  new  Bible, 
against  the  book  of  Common  Praier  in  the 
maner  of  reading  of  the  Scriptures.^  And  in 
many  things  the  Bishops  articles  in  their 
severall  Diocesses  differ  from  this  book,  as 
about  the  standing  of  the  Communion  table,  and 
fetching  the  dead  to  Church,  and  such  like: 
but  the  Court  of  faculties,  that  for  marrying 
without  asking  the  banes,  and  many  moe 
things  differeth  from  it  and  all  other  their 
books,  but  chiefely  from  Gods  Bible.  What 
say  we  to  this  case  ?  we  are  neither  free  to 
follow  the  Bible,  nor  out  of  doubt  what  to  do 

^  Thus  shall  ihey  be  perplexed,  that  follow  mens  heads. 
F 


90  THOMAS  CARTWRIGHT 

by  these  books  :  but  to  follow  God  and  his 
Word  we  are  so  free,  that  we  are  by  the 
Apostle  forbidden  to  become  servants  ^  of  men. 
If  this  be  true,  as  who  can  deny  it  ?  then  is  it 
your  part  to  rid  our  Church  of  these  shrewd 
encumbrances.  And  whereas  it  was  meant  to 
bridle  Papists,  make  direct  lawes  against  them.^ 
Further,  whereas  our  Church  yet  misseth  of 
the  right  course  of  the  Scriptures  in  our 
reformation,  let  your  learned  men  be  driven  to 
draw  a  platforme  out  of  Gods  booke  (where  it 
is  described  at  full)  according  to  his  will  in  the 
same  revealed,  and  the  examples  of  the  best 
Churches  beyond  the  Seas,  as  Geneva,  France, 
etc. 


Shall  I  examine  their  other  orders,  that  were 
definite?  but  yet  for  the  booke  of  Common- 
prayer,^  which  of  all  other  must  not  be  touched, 
because  they  have  gotten  the  State  so  to  beare 
it  out:  Even  for  the  very  States  sake,  for  the 
Princes  sake,  for  the  Churches  sake,  and  for 
conscience  sake,  hee  hath  but  a  bad  conscience 
that  in  this  time  will  hold  his  peace,  and  not 
speake   it  for  feare  of  trouble,  knowing   that 

1  1  Cor.  vii.  23.  ^  Direct  lawes  against  Papists. 

"*  Book  of  common  praier. 


THOMAS  CARTWRIGHT  91 

there  are  such  intollerable  abuses  in  it,  as  it  is 
plaine  there  are. 

First  I  say,  that  if  it  were  praying,  and  that 
there  were  never  an  ill  word,  nor  sentence  in 
all  the  prayers,^  yet  to  appoint  it  to  be  used,  or 
so  to  use  it  as  Papists  did  their  mattens  and 
even-song,  for  a  set  service  to  God,  though  the 
words  bee  good,  the  use  is  naught.     The  words 
of  the  first  chapter  after  Saint  John  be  good,  but 
to  be  put  in  a  Tablet  of  gold,  for  a  soveraigne 
thing  to  be  worne,  that  use   is  superstitious 
and  naught,  and  so  is  the  use  of  this  service : 
for  the  order  must  be   kept,  and   that  being 
done,  they  have  served  God.     And  if  they  al- 
ledge  that  that  use  was  not  meant,  and  that  it 
is  an  abuse,  I  say  and  can  prove  it,  that  if  it 
be  an  abuse,  it  is  so  settled  it  will  not  be  re- 
formed, till  there  be  a  reformation  of  prayer. 
Againe,   where    learned   they  to   multiply  up 
many  prayers   of  one   effect,  so   many  times. 
Glory  he  to  the  Father,  so  many  times.  The 
Lord  he  tvith  you,  so  many  times.  Let  us  pray. 
Whence  learned  they  all  those  needlesse  repeti- 
tions?    Is  it  not  the   Popish  Gloria  Patri^  ; 
their   Dominus   vohiscum^'^     Their    Oremus^'^ 
Lord  have  mercy  upon  us,  Christ  have  mercy 

^  An  intollerahle  abuse  of  praise. 

2  Gloria  patri.         *  Dominus  voUscum.         ^  Oremus. 


92  THOMAS  CARTWRIGHT 

upon,  is  it  not  Kyrie  eleeson,^  Christe  eleeson : 
their  many  Pater  nosters,^  why  use  they  them  ? 
but  as  though  they  were  at  their  beads.  The 
words  be  good,  so  were  they  when  they  were 
in  Latine,  but  the  use  is  naught :  forbidden  by 
our  Saviour  :  You  when  you  pray  use  not  vaine 
repetitions  as  the  Heathen  do,  saith  hee.  And 
then  the  Collect  for  the  day  to  be  used  at  end 
of  Mattens,  what  shall  I  call  it  ?  And  afore  the 
Epistle  and  Gospell,^  as  they  call  it.  The  book 
is  such  a  peece  of  worke  as  it  is  strange  wee 
will  use  it ;  besides  I  cannot  account  it  praying, 
as  they  use  it  commonly,  but  onely  reading  or 
saying  of  prayers,*^  even  as  a  childe  that  learneth 
to  reade,  if  his  lesson  be  a  prayer,  he  readeth  a 
prayer,  he  doth  not  pray,  even  so  is  it  commonly 
a  saying,  and  reading  prayers  and  not  praying, 
the  childe  putteth  off  his  cap  as  well  as  the 
Minister.  For  though  they  have  many  guises, 
now  to  kneele,  and  now  to  stand,  these  be  of 
course,  and  not  of  any  pricke  of  conscience,  or 
peircing  of  the  heart  most  commonly.  One  hee 
kneeleth  on  his  knees,  and  this  way  he  looketh, 
and  that  way  hee  looketh,  another  he  kneeleth 

^  Kyrie  eleeson.  -  Many  Pater  nosters. 

3  Matt.  vi.  7. 

^  Reading  praiers  no  praying,  hi  praying  many  guises 
taken  up,  and  used,  rather  of  custome,  then  of  reason,  and 
knowledge  or  conscience. 


THOMAS  CARTWRIGHT  93 

himselfe  asleepe,  another  kneeleth  with  such 
devotion,  that  hee  is  so  farre  in  talke,  that  he 
forgetteth  to  arise  till  his  knees  ake,  or  his  talke 
encleth,  or  service  is  done.  And  why  is  all 
this?  but  that  there  is  no  such  praying  as 
should  touch  the  heart.  And  therefore  another 
hath  so  little  feeling  of  the  common  prayer,  that 
he  bringeth  a  booke  of  his  owne,  and  though 
he  sit,  when  they  sit,  stand  when  they  stand, 
kneele  when  they  kneele,  he  may  pause  some- 
time also,  but  most  of  all  he  intendeth  his  own 
booke,  is  this  praying  ?  God  grant  us  to  feele 
our  lackes  better  then  this,  and  to  take  a  better 
order  then  this  for  prayer,  it  is  and  will  be  all 
naught  else,  Againe  the  Psalmes  be  all  read 
in  forme  of  prayer,^  they  be  not  all  prayers, 
the  people  seldome  marke  them,  and  sometime 
when  they  marke  them,  they  thinkejsome  of 
them  strange  geare,  and  all  for  that  they  are 
but  onely  read,  and  scarse  read  oftentimes.  It 
is  a  very  simple  shift  that  you  use  to  shift  it 
with  a  homily,  to  expound  darke  places  of 
Scripture,  for  they  be  darkly  expounded  that 
be  expounded,  and  many  places  more  darke 
then  you  rehearse  any,  which  are  not  once 
touched.  Simple  and  homely  geare  in  divers 
Homilies  there  is.     There  is  none  other  helpe 

^  Heading  of  Psalmes. 


94  THOMAS  CARTWRIGHT 

I  can  tell  you,  but  plaine  Preaching  which  is 
Gods  plaine  order.  What  reason  to  sing  the 
Chapters  of  Scriptures/  and  yet  so  they  may 
in  a  plaine  tune.  Are  all  the  prayers  that  are 
used,  agreeable  to  the  Scriptures?  To  let  passe 
the  Benedictus,^  where  I  would  know  how  I 
might  say  in  my  prayer :  For  thou  chilcle  shall 
he  called  the  Prophet  of  the  highest  ?  And  the 
Magnificat,^  where  I  would  know  how  any 
man,  yea,  or  woman  either,  might  say  the 
tenure  of  these  very  words :  For  hee  hath  re- 
garded the  low  degree  of  his  handmaid,  for 
behold  from  henceforth  all  generations  shall  call 
me  blessed  ?  marke  this  well,  and  you  can  never 
answer  it  well,  but  that  it  is  a  palpable  folly, 
and  vaine  praying.  To  let  these  passe,  I  would 
know  in  what  Canonicall  Scripture  they  find  this 
prayer:  0  all  yee  icorkes  of  the  Lord?  and  what 
they  meane  when  they  say,  0  Ananias,  Azarias,^ 
and  Misael,  praise  the  Lord?  which  part  of 
prayer  is  not  according  to  the  Scripture,  if  all 
the  rest  be,  but  the  whole  thankes  giving  is 
Apocriphall,  and  yet  these  men  that  are  named, 
were  then  alive,  and  said  it  themselves,  if  it 
were  truely  their  prayer,  and  it  belongeth  not 
to  us  to  speake  to  them  now,  that  are  dead, 

^  Singing  of  chapter-^.  ^  Benedictus, 

^  Magnificat.  ^  0  Ananias,  Azarias, 


THOMAS  CARTWRIGHT  95 

and  why  to  them  more  then  to  the  Virgin 
Mary,  Peter  or  Paul,  etc.^  Let  him  that 
speaketh,  speake  as  the  word  of  God,  saith  the 
Apostle. 2  With  what  truth  can  we  say  that 
one  Collect  which  is  appointed  to  be  said  from 
the  Nativity  to  New-yeares  day?  which  is^ 
that  upon  the  Nativity  day  I  must  say,  That 
Christ  vouchsafed  this  day  to  bee  borne,  and 
when  I  reade  it  another  day,  I  must  say,  Hee 
vouchsafed  this  day  to  bee  borne,  and  the  next 
day  againe.  This  day.  Surely  I  lie  one  of  the 
dales,  and  such  a  prayer  is  at  Whitsuntide 
appointed.  I  would  know  whereupon  they 
ground  their  Collect  appointed  for  the  service 
of  ^S'.  Bartholomew  ^  (for  we  have  Saints  and 
Angels,  and  All-hallowes  service,  which  the 
first  Treastises  speake  of)  I  would  I  say  know 
whereon  they  ground  that  Collect?  wherein 
they  pray  that  they  may  follow  Bartholomews 
Sermons,  seeing  there  is  never  a  Sermon  of  his 
extant,  and  so  we  shall  follow  we  wot  not 
what  ?  or  that  they  pray  that  the  Church  may 
Preach  as  he  did,  when  as  they  neither  have 
his  Sermons,  nor  yet  the  whole  Church  may 
Preach,  but  the  Ministers  of  the  Church  onely. 

1  1  Pet.  iv.  11. 

^  Collects  at  the  feast  of  the  Nativity,  and  Whitsuntide. 

^  A  collect  on  Bartholomew  day. 


^6  THOMAS  CARTWRIGHT 

Is  this  i^raying  ?  God  forgive  us  it  is  a  wicked 
pratling.  By  what  Scriptures  have  they  Lent 
service  :  ^  Ashwednesday  service  ?  Three  Col- 
lects for  that  day  ?  There  is  also  ^  a  Commina- 
tion  ^  grounded  upon  great  reason,  if  that  be 
well  marked,  which  the  Priest  (forsooth)  must 
say  at  the  entrance  into  the  matter,  that  is : 
what  a  peece  of  disciphne  was  in  former  times 
kept  about  the  holy  time  of  Lent,  which  untill 
it  be  restored,  would  be  supplyed  with  this 
Jewish  order.  But  what  place  of  Scripture 
doth  induce  them  to  reduce  this  ceremony  ?  or 
what  place  of  Scripture  would  warrant  such  a 
peece  of  Discipline,  as  there  they  seeme  very 
desirous  to  have  restored  ?  as  who  should  say 
such  devices  of  observances  for  dales  and  times 
were  profitable  or  sufferable  in  Christs  Church.* 
Let  them  endevour  to  commend  God  his 
Discipline,  which  should  be  all  the  dales  and 
times  of  our  life  exercised  in  Christs  Church ; 
let  them  require  that,  I  would  know  what 
there  is  in  Athanasius  Creed,^  that  that  must 
be  upon  high  dales  (as  they  terme  them)  rather 
then  the  Apostles  Creed  ?  I  would  know  why 
Venite^  may  not   serve  at   Easter,  as  it  must 

^  Service  for  Lent,  Ash  Wedne.tday,  etc. 

-  Deut.  xxvii.  13,  14.  "  A  Commination. 

■*  Gal.  iv.  9,  10,  11.       ^  Atha/iasms  Creed.         ^   Venite. 


THOMAS  CARTWRIGHT  97 

all  the  yeare  afore,  and  after  follow  Dominie 
labia  ?  it  is  surely  a  strange  thing  to  see  the 
fansies  that  this  booke  is  full  of.  I  overpasse 
the  dry  Communion  (as  they  call  it),  the 
Epistle,  the  Gospell,  the  Offertory,  and  because 
they  have  in  the  former  Treatises  touched 
many  things  of  the  Sacraments,  of  Matrimonie, 
of  Confirmation,  and  so  of  the  rest,  I  the  more 
wilUngly  skip  over  many  things  else,  saying 
shortly  that  the  Sacraments  are  wickedly 
mangled  and  prophaned.  But  as  for  Confirma- 
tion,^  as  it  hath  no  ground  out  of  the  Scriptures 
at  all,  so  I  would  have  their  prayer  marked, 
how  they  reckon  up  the  sevenfold  graces  as  the 
Papists  did,  neither  more  nor  lesse,  where  they 
have  one  grace  more  then  the  ii.  of  Esay 
hath,  which  they  allude  unto.  And  againe, 
they  have  farre  fewer  then  are  mentioned  in 
the  rest  of  the  Scriptures.  Lord,  to  see  these 
very  folies,  may  not  this  book  be  altered  neither 
in  matter  or  manner  ?  Surely,  then  have  you 
a  mannerly  sort  of  Ministers  ^  that  straine 
curtesie  to  forbeare  to  lie,  and  to  forbeare 
superstition,  when  they  seeme  to  present  them- 
selves before  the  Lord,  which  can  worse  like 
such  service  then   you  can  to  forbeare  it.^     I 

^  Confirmation.  ^  A  mannerly  sort  of  Ministers. 

3  Jerem.  vi.  16,  17,  18,  19,  20,  21. 


98  THOMAS  CARTWRIGHT 

have  thus  much  further  examined  the  orders 
that  these  men  use  in  prayer,  beside  the 
generall  observation,  that  they  allow  prayer 
in  publique  place  without  a  Sermon,  which 
is  rightly  prohibited  in  Churches  reformed. 
Would  the  word  of  God  thus  negligently,  thus 
fantastically,  prophanely  and  heathenishly  be 
Preached  ?  or  the  Sacraments  bee  so  wickedly, 
without  examination  at  the  supper,  or  sincerity 
in  Baptisme,  bee  so  (I  say)  wickedly  ministred  ? 
would  prayers  be  made  either  that  were  so 
foolish,  or  so  superstitious,  or  so  false,  or  the 
best  of  them  so  undevoutely,  if  there  were  such 
right  orders  as  were  in  the  Churches  planted 
by  the  Apostles,  as  is  in  the  best  reformed 
Churches,  and  ought  to  be  in  ours  ?  What 
though  these  men  be,  and  will  be  taken  so 
learned,  so  right,  that  they  need  learne  of  none 
other,  are  not  these  their  orders  ?  do  they  not 
maintaine  them  ?  do  they  not  persecute  them 
that  speake  against  them  ?  and  yet  I  pray  you 
are  they  not  starke  naught?  yea,  and  so  are 
divers  of  them,  not  onely  for  their  bribing  and 
corruption,  and  their  arrogancy,  their  tyranny, 
but  for  flat  heresie  in  the  Sacraments  ;  and 
some  be  suspected  of  the  heresie  of  Pelagius} 

^  The  Pelagians  denied  the  hereditary  transmission  of 
the  sin  of  Adam,  and  held  that  a  man  could  be  saved  by 
his  own  natural  strength. 


THOMAS  CARTWRIGHT  99 

For  the   first,  that   is  concerning   the   Sacra- 
ment,   the    Bishops  1    are    notoriously  known 
which  erre  in  it,  and   for  free-will,  one  onely 
they   are    suspected,   but   others    also.      And 
indeed  the  booke  of  the  Articles  2  of  Christian 
Religion  speaketh  very  dangerously  of  falling 
from  grace,  which  is  to  be  reformed,  because  it 
too  much  enclineth  to  their  errour  ;  other  things 
there  are  maintained  by  some  of  them  which 
are  not  agreeable  with  the  Scripture  ;  Namely, 
the  false  interpretation  of  this  clause  in  our 
Creede   {Hee    descended    into    hell)  which    is 
expressly  set  down  contrary  to  the  Scriptures, 
in  the  Creed  ^  made  in  Meeter  in  these  words  : 
His  spirit  did  after  this  descend  into  the  lower 
parts,  to  thein  that  long  in  darkenesse  were  the 
true  light  of  their  hearts.     If  they  can  warrant 
this  out  of  the  Scriptures,  then  Limbus  Patrum,^ 
and  within  a  while  Purgatory  will  be  found  out 
there.     And  yet  this  must  be  priviledged,  and 
divers  such  like  matters,  disagreeing  with  the 
Scriptures,  as  in  the  humble  suite  of  a  sinner  ^ 

1  Bishops  themselves,  some  of  them  in  heresies,  arid  some 


2  The  hoohe  of  Articles  of  Christian  Religion. 

2  The  Creed  in  meeter. 

-'The  'Bosom  of  Abraham,'  where  were  kept  the 
souls  of  the  saints  of  the  old  dispensation.  Christ  is 
held  to  have  descended  to  Limbus,  and  emptied  it,  after 
the  Crucifixion.  "^  The  humble  sidte  of  a  sinner. 


loo         THOMAS  CARTWRIGHT 

it  is  said,  That  the  Saints  and  Angels  see 
Christs  hloudy  ivounds  as  yet ;  and  in  their 
last  great  Bible  ^  in  the  first  Edition  of  it, 
such  a  sight  of  blasphemous  pictures  of  God 
the  Father,  as  what  they  deserve  for  it,  I  will 
referre  them  to  none  other  iudge  then  their 
own  note  upon  the  15  verse  of  the  fourth 
of  Deuteronomie,  Wee  hold  I  wot  not  what 
heresies  that  speake  against  their  pride  and 
traditions,  but  they  that  expresly  speake  and 
do  against  the  Scriptures,  hold  nothing  I  trow 
but  verities.  But  let  these  guides  weigh  the 
Scripture,  which  saith,  you  straine  a  gnat  and 
sivallow  dotvn  a  CameU 

Well  now,  seeing  we  have  thus  far  weighed, 
partly  Gods  orders  for  the  ministers  election, 
for  their  exercises,  and  for  their  equalitie,  that 
it  is  better  then  our  L.  Bishops,  for  the  con- 
tinuing of  sound  religion,  and  that  the  order  of 
Bishops  is  contrary  to  the  Scriptures,  and  that 
they  make  and  maintaine  with  cruelty  against 
the  Scriptures  many  wicked  orders,  let  us  now 
come  to  the  other  part,  which  is  of  the  govern- 
ment of  the  Church,  to  see  how  that  standeth 
by  the  Scriptures.  I  have  already  made  men- 
tion of  a  Consistorie,^  which  were  to  be  had  in 

1  The  last  great  bible.     The  Bishops'  Bible,  1568. 

-  Matt,  xxiii.  24.        ^  Consistorie  whereof  it  consisteth. 


THOMAS  CARTWRIGHT  loi 

every  congregation.     That   consisteth   first   of 
the  ministers  ^  of  the  same  congregation,  as  the 
guides  and  mouth  of  the  rest,  to  direct  them  by 
the  scriptures,  and  to  speake  at  their  appoint- 
ment,   that   which   shall    be    consented    upon 
amongst  them  all,  because  of  their  giftes,  and 
place  amongst  them,  which  maketh  them  more 
fit  for  those  purposes.    The  assistants  ^  are  they, 
whom  the  parish  shall  consent  upon  and  chuse, 
for  their  good  iudgement  in  religion  and  godli- 
nesse,  which  they  know  they  be  of,  whereby 
they  are  meete  for  that  office  using  the  advise 
of  their  ministers  therein  cheefely,^  and  having 
an  eye  to  a  prescript  forme  drawn  out  of  the 
Scriptures,  at  the  appointment  of  the  Prince 
and  state,  by  the  godly  learned  men  of  this 
realme,  because  of  the  rawnesse  of  this  people 
yet,  and  also  using  earnest  prayers,  with  fast- 
ing, as  in  the  choise  of  the  minister,  and  having 
made  their  choise  thereafter,  they  shall  publish 
their  agi-eement   in   their  parish,   and   after  a 
sermon  by  their  minister,  at  their  appointment,* 
and  uppon  their  consent  the  minister  may  lay 
his  hands  uppon  every  of  them,  to  testifie  to 


1  The  Ministers  first  in  it. 

-  Who  the  Assistants  must  bee. 

3  How  the  Assistants  must  he  chosen. 

4  Wherefore  this  Consistory  serveth. 


102         THOMAS  CARTWRIGHT 

them  their  admission.  This  consist orie  is  for 
that  onely  congregation,  and  must  do  that 
which  they  do  iointly  in  any  common  cause  of 
the  Church.  And  these  are  to  employ  them- 
selves and  to  be  employed  by  that  congrega- 
tion, upon  the  necessary  urgent  affaires  of  the 
same  Church.  These  are  they  in  that  Church 
to  whom  our  Saviour  commandeth  them  that 
have  twise,^  or  oftner  admonished  an  offender, 
and  he  heareth  them  not,  to  utter  such  an 
offender ;  when  he  saith,  Tel  the  Church, 
These  are  they,  whose  last  admonition  he  of 
that  Church,  or  they  which  regard  not,  shall 
be  taken  as  a  publicane  or  heathen.  These 
are  they,  that  shall  admonish  all  such  in  the 
Congregation,  as  they  know  to  live  with  offence 
to  the  Church,  or  as  be  presented  to  them, 
by  good  testimonie  of  their  offence  committed. 
These  be  they,  which  shall  excommunicate  the 
stubborne,  making  the  whole  Church  privie  to 
their  doings,  and  shall  upon  repentance,  take 
order  for  the  receiving  such  an  one  in  again, 
making  open  profession  of  his  or  their  repent- 
ance, to  the  satisfying  of  the  Congregation. 
Yet  ever  so  must  they  excommunicate,  and 
receive  the  excommunicate  in  againe,  that  they 
require  the  assent  of  their  whole  congregation,^ 

1  Matt,  xviii.  17.       "^Assent  of  their  whole  congregation. 


THOMAS  CARTWRIGHT         103 

shewing  the  greevousnesse  of  his  fact,  and  how 
they  have  proceeded  with  him  by  admonition, 
and  his  contempt,  which  they  shall  do,  both 
because  their  upright  dealing  may  appeare  to 
the  whole  Church,  and  because  they  may  not 
usurpe  authoritie  over  the  whole  Church, 
whereby  we  might  caste  out  the  tyi*annie  of 
the  Bishops,  and  bring  in  a  new  tyranie  of 
theirs,  who  are  appointed  by  good  order,  to 
have  the  examination  of  matters,  and  the  rest 
of  dealing,  in  the  name  of  the  whole  con- 
gregation. Neverthelesse,  what  they  do  well, 
the  congregation  cannot  alter,  neither  shall  the 
Congregation  put  them,  or  any  of  them  out, 
but  upon  iust  cause  proved,  either  in  that 
consistorie  or  in  some  one  of  the  counsels, 
and  the  cause  accepted  for  sufficient,  Neither 
may  they,  or  any  of  them  leave  to  deale  in 
that  turne,  except  they  can  shew  good  cause 
to  that  consistorie,  and  it  to  be  approved  by 
them,  with  the  consent  of  the  whole  Congrega- 
tion, and  good  liking.  For  neither  must  they 
lightly  be  brought  into  suspition,  nor  they 
must  not  lightly  cast  of  so  waighty  a  calling, 
and  function  of  such  importance,  no  more  then 
the  ministers  may.^     They  also  shall  examine 

1  1  Tim.  V.  19. 


I04         THOMAS  CARTWRIGHT 

all  disordered  ceremonies^  used  in  place  of 
prayer,  and  abolish  those  which  they  find  evill, 
or  unprofitable,  and  bring  in  such  orders,  as 
their  congregation  shall  have  need  of,  so  they 
be  few,  and  apparent,  necessary  both  for  edify- 
ing, and  profite  and  decent  order :  proovdng  it 
plainely  to  the  whole  Church  that  it  is  so.^ 
And  in  like  sort  shall  they  suffer  no  lewd 
customes  ^  to  remaine  in  their  parish,  either 
in  games,  or  otherwise,  but  having  conferred 
of  such  things  amongst  themseh^es,  then  shall 
admonish  him  or  them  brotherly,  that  he  or 
they,  use  them  not  any  more,  as  unseeming  to 
Christian  men  to  use  the  like,  or  if  they  be 
common,  they  shall  give  open  admonition, 
and  it  shall  be  left.  In  all  these  things,  and 
in  all  things  of  the  Church,  they  shall  not 
meddle  with  the  civil  magistrates  office,*  nor 
with  any  other  punishment  but  admonition, 
and  excommunication  of  the  obstinate.  Yet 
this  they  must  doe,  that  hee  which  hath  lived 
with  offfence  to  that  congregation  although  he 
hath  suffred  the  punishment  of  the  law  for 
his  offence  against  it,  yet  he  shall  by  them 
be  admonished,  to  satisfie  the  congregation  to 

1  Disordered  ceremonies. 

'  Neceaaary  orders.  ^  Lewd  c^istomes. 

^  They  may  not  meddle  with  the  civill  Magistrates  office. 


THOMAS  CARTWRIGHT         105 

whom  he  hath  given  oiFence,  and  amongst 
whom  he  dwelleth.  As  for  example :  he  that 
hath  usurie^  prooved  against  him,  so  that  he 
loose  his  principall  for  taking  above  ten  in 
the  hundred,  yet  shall  he  also  for  committing 
so  hainous  offence  against  God,  and  his  Church, 
to  the  very  ill  example  of  others,  not  be 
allowed  to  the  Sacraments,  untill  he  shew 
himselfe  repentant  for  the  fault,  and  study  to 
satisfie  the  Congregation  so  offended  by  him. 
These  shall  receive  the  information  of  the 
Deacons,^  for  the  releefe  of  the  poore,  and  their 
accounts  for  that  which  they  shall  lay  out  that 
way,  and  of  their  diligence  in  visiting  them, 
that  the  congregations  may  by  the  Consistorie 
be  certified  of  all  things  concerning  the  pore^ 
both  that  there  may  be  made  provision  accord- 
ingly and  that  the  provision  made,  may  be 
well  husbanded,  and  the  poore  may  by  the 
Deacons  be  visited,  comforted,  and  releeved 
according  to  their  lack.  Lastly,  one  or  more 
of  these  assistants,  with  one  of  the  ministers, 
and  a  Deacon  or  Deacons  shall  be  those,  that 
shall  at  their  Churches  charges  meete  at  the 
provinciall   Councel,    or  national,  if  there   be 

1  Usury. 

2  Information  and  accounts  of  the  Deacons. 

G 


io6         THOMAS  CARTWRIGHT 

any  businesse  that  concerneth  their  Church.^ 
Especially,  one  of  the  ministers  shall  not  faile, 
and  one  of  these  assistance,  to  be  parties  in 
any  generall  cause  of  all  the  Churches  that 
may  be  dealt  in  there,  whether  it  be  concern- 
ing doctrine,  or  manners.  Now  a  word  or  two 
of  Excommunication,  and  Deacons,  because  I 
have  made  mention  of  them,  and  then  I  will 
shew  upon  what  scriptures  these  orders  are 
grounded,  and  compare  them  with  those  which 
we  use,  and  some  certaine  matters  incident 
to  these,  and  then  draw  to  an  end  by  Gods 
grace.  Excommunication  ^  may  not  be  used, 
but  after  sundry  brotherly  and  sharpe  admoni- 
tions too,  and  great  occasions,  offences,  and 
contempts  shewed  as  the  scripture  is  plaine. 
And  in  these  cases  they  are  by  the  persons, 
and  order  afore,  not  shut  out  of  the  Church 
doores,^  but  out  of  the  Church  of  God,  and 
communion  and  fellowship  of  the  Saints,  they 
are  delivered  to  Satan,  and  to  be  esteemed, 
and  to  be  no  more  taken  for  Christian  men, 
till  they  repent,  then  Heathens  or  Turks  are, 
save  that,  as  they  may  be  allowed,  yea  and 
procured    if  it   may    be,    to    come    to    heare 

1  Who  should  repaire  to  the  Counsels  for  the  Churches 
affaires. 

2  Of  Excommunication. 

^  Shutting  out  of  the  Church  door. 


THOMAS  CARTWRIGHT  107 

sermons,  so  also  they  may  be  conferred  with 
by  the  brethren,  to  bring  them  to  repentance. 
But  they  shall  not  be  allowed  to  the  sacra- 
ment, the  pledge  of  Christ  his  league  with  his 
Church,  until  by  repentance  they  may  be  ad- 
mitted as  afore  is  said,  into  the  fellowship  of 
the  Church  againe.  Neither  shall  any  brother, 
or  sister,  use  his  or  their  companie,  but  to 
admonish  them,  and  exhort  them  to  repent- 
ance, or  as  he  or  she  may  the  heathens  com- 
panie, for  their  necessarie  affaires  in  the  world, 
as  they  may  have  deahng  together :  or  as  a 
wife,  which  may  not  depart  from  her  husband 
if  he  will  abide  with  her,^  and  yet  shee 
may  be  admitted  to  the  fellowship  of  the 
congregation,  if  shee  contemne  not  the  doing 
of  the  Church,^  but  do  her  uttermost  to 
call  her  husband  home.  In  like  case,  if  it 
were  the  wife  that  were  excommunicated,  he 
should  be  admited,  and  not  she.  Shortly  to 
say :  Excommunication  ^  is  a  fearefull  thing 
as  it  is  prescribed  by  the  Scriptures,  and 
used  by  the  Churches  of  Christ  reformed 
accordingly.      No    punishment    to    it    in    this 

1  1  Cor.  V.  9,  10.  ~  1  Cor.  vii.  12,  13. 

^  No  punishment  so  grevous  in  this  world  as  excom- 
munication.  Some  sharp  punishment  must  bee  provided  hy 
the  Civill  Magistrate  for  such  as  contemne  excommunica- 
tion, but  with  lesse  charge  then  a  Significavit. 


lo8         THOMAS  CARTWRIGHT 

world,  but  onely  hell  eternally :  for  he  that 
is  in  it,  either  he  hath  his  conscience  seered 
with  a  hote  iron,  I  meane  it  is  brawned,  and 
he  hath  no  feeling,  or  else  he  cannot  be 
without  a  hell  in  his  conscience :  for  he  is  out 
of  the  fellowship  of  the  Saints,  he  cannot 
claime  to  be  of  Christs  Body,  nor  that  his 
promises  and  mercy  belong  to  him,  if  he  seek 
not  to  be  received  by  repentance  into  the 
Congregation  of  Christ  againe,  nor  he  may  not 
have  that  comforable  pledge  of  Christ  his 
Supper  in  fruition  with  the  Church,  till  his 
repentance  be  accepted  by  that  Church. 
Neither  may  any  other  Church  receive  him  till 
hee  have  satisfied  that  Chui*ch :  but  the 
Minister  and  Consistory  of  that  Church 
whereto  he  newly  repaireth,  shall  enquire  from 
whence  he  came,  and  have  testimony  from 
thence,  and  not  admit  him  no  more  then  the 
other  Church :  or  if  othermse,  to  answer  it 
at  some  Conference,  or  Councell  Provinciall 
or  Nationall,  And  beside,  the  Civill  Magis- 
trate (the  nurse  and  Foster-father  of  the 
Church)  shall  do  well  to  provide  some 
sharpe  punishment  for  those  that  contemne 
this  censm-e  and  discipline  of  the  Church, 
for  no  doubt  it  is  in  the  degree  of  blas- 
phemie,  of  a  Heathen  our  Saviour  saith,  that 


THOMAS  CARTWRIGHT         109 

renoimceth   God  and   Christ,  and  thus  much 
of  that. 

A  Deacon  1  is  an  officer  of  the  Church 
for  the  behoofe  of  the  poore,  chosen  to  this 
office  by  the  Congregation,  by  such  meanes  as 
afore  is  prescribed  in  the  choice  of  Elders,  by 
advice  and  consent,  being  a  noted  man  for 
godly  iudgement,  and  faithfulnesse,  as  it  is 
plaine  out  of  the  Scriptures  that  such  an  one 
he  should  be.  His  office  is  to  visite  the  poore 
indeed,  to  looke  diligently  what  they  lack,  and 
how  many  they  be,  and  what  be  their  names, 
and  to  certifie  the  Consistory:  or  such  a 
number  in  one  parish  they  may  be,  that  they 
shall  need  a  generall  contribution,  and  then  the 
Deacon  or  Deacons  with  those  of  the  Con- 
sistory afore  named,  may  certifie  the  Councell 
Provinciall,  that  a  provision  may  be  levied  for 
the  sustentation  of  those  poore,  which  provision 
shall  be  dehvered  into  the  Deacons  hands,  to 
be  distributed  and  turned  to  the  behoofe  of 
that  poore,  and  to  give  an  account  of  that  they 
distribute,  and  the  rest  in  their  hands  to  their 
owne  Consistory,  for  that  which  is  collected 
there ;  or  they,  and  those  of  the  Consistory  as 
afore,  to  certefie  it  to  the  Councell  provinciall, 
for  the  generall  contribution,  how  it  is  truly 

^  JVhat  a  Deacon  is.     Acts  vi.  3. 


no         THOMAS  CARTWRIGHT 

imployed.  This  office  howsoever  Papistry  hath 
converted  it  or  perverted  it,  is  an  office  need- 
full,  and  commanded  to  the  Church  of  God,  used 
by  the  Jewes  before  the  comming  of  Christ,^ 
Christ  himself  using  in  his  small  company  to 
have  one  to  beare  provision  for  the  poore : 
the  Apostles  tooke  it  up  in  the  Church  of 
Jerusalem.  The  Apostle  Paid  not  onely 
maketh  mention  of  that  office  to  the  Romans, 
shewing  thereby  that  it  was  there;-  but  he 
and  Timothy  saluteth  them,  writing  to  the 
Phillippians,  shewing  thereby  that  they  were  of 
great  accompt.  And  writing  to  Timothy,  he 
prescribeth  their  election  what  it  should  be,  to 
direct  not  onely  the  choice  of  them,  but  to 
commend  the  use  of  them  to  the  Church.^ 
And  therefore  such  there  must  be  procured  in 
this  Enghsh  Church,  as  at  this  day  there  is  in 
Reformed  Churches. 

^  Luke  xxi.  4 ;  Joh.  xiii.  29.  ^  Acts  vi.  13. 

3  Phil.  i.  1 ;  1  Tim.  iii.  8. 


V 

THE  MARPRELATE  LIBELS 

[The  immediate  causes  which  led  to  the  Marprelate 
controversy  were  these  : — Archbishop  Whitgift,  in 
1583,  met  the  attempt  of  Cartwright  and  Travers 
to  establish  their  'Book  of  Discipline,'  by  com- 
pelling subscription  to  three  articles  :  (1)  The  Royal 
Supremacy,  (2)  The  Book  of  Common  Prayer,  (3) 
The  Articles  of  1562.  The  Puritans  now  based 
their  hopes  on  the  Parliament  of  1584,  and  with 
this  end  in  view.  The  Practice  of  Prelates  was 
published  by  Tyndal.  It  was  the  first  of  the  series 
which  reached  its  last  term  in  the  Marprelate  libels, 
and  was  scarcely  less  coarse  than  they.  The 
attempt  of  1584  was  a  failure  ;  and,  when  it  was 
renewed  in  1586,  the  House  refused  to  allow  the 
Bill  to  be  introduced.  From  this  time  the  flow  of 
Puritan  tracts,  which  had  begun  about  1570,  in- 
creased both  in  number  and  violence  ;  and,  in  1587 
Dr  John  Bridges  wrote  his  Defence  in  answer  to 
them.  This  led  next  year  (1588)  to  the  first  of  the 
Marprelate  tracts  the  E'pistle,  which  we  here  in 
part  reproduce.  The  Epitome  followed  very  shortly 
after ;  and  in  1589  nearly  all  the  other  tracts  were 
issued.  Bishop  Cooper's  Admonition  came  out  early 
in  that  year,  and  the  Queen's  Proclamation  against 
certain  seditious  and  schism atical  books  and  libels 
is  dated  February  13,  1589  (N.S-). 


112       THE  MARPRELATE  LIBELS 

Theses  Martinianae^  or  Martin  Juniar  is  dated 
July  22nd  ;  the  Just  Censiire  and  Reproofe  of  Martin 
Senior,  July  29th.  In  August  a  press  that  Penry 
had  set  up  in  Manchester  was  seized,  at  the 
instigation  of  the  Earl  of  Derby,  while  printing 
More  worke  for  Cooper,  but,  nothing  daunted, 
Penry  continued  his  printing  operations  elsewhere. 

The  attack  of  the  anti-Martinists  began  in  the 
same  month  with  '  A  Countercuffe,  given  to  Martin 
Junior  by  the  venturous,  hardie  and  renowned 
Pasquill  of  England,  Caviliero,'  which  is  dated 
August  8th.  Next  followed  Pappe  with  an  Hatchet. 
The  Return  of  Pasquil  is  dated  October  20th,  and 
close  upon  this  An  Almond  for  a  Farrat  appeared. 
In  the  winter  a  final  squib  was  fired,  ''Martins 
Months  minde  that  is,  a  certaine  Report  and  true 
Description  of  Death  and  Funeralls  of  olde  Martin 
Marre-prelate,  the  great  Makebate  of  England  and 
Father  of  the  Factions,  contayning  the  cause  of  his 
death,  the  manner  of  his  buriall,  and  the  right 
copies  both  of  his  will  and  such  epitaphs,'  etc. 

On  the  Martinist  side  the  Protestatyon  of  Martin 
Mar  prelate  appeared  in  September,  and  the  answer 
to  Bishop  Cooper's  Admonition,  called  Hay  any 
Worke  for  Cooper,  seems  from  internal  evidence  to 
have  been  iDublished  in  the  Winter  of  1589.  '  Ha' 
ye  any  work  for  John  Cooper '  was  one  of  the  cries 
of  London  at  the  time  ;  and  Martin  had  recognised 
the  good  Bishop  in  the  initials  '  T.  C.,'  which  had 
appeared  on  the  Admonitio7i.  In  January  29th, 
1590  (N.S.),  Penry's  house  was  searched,  but  he  was 
not  arrested.  Shortly  afterwards,  however,  the 
mayor  was  directed  to  apprehend  him  as  a  traitor. 
He  hid  himself,  and  escaped  to  Scotland,  having 
first  issued  his  defiant  '  Apjjellation  of  John  Penri 
unto  the  Highe  court  of  Parliament.'  In  Scotland 
he  preached   openly ;   and  issued  a  '  Treatise '  in 


THE  MARPRELATE  LIBELS       113 

favour  of  reformation,  the  answer  to  which,  The 
First  Parte  of  Pasquils  Apologie,  brought  the 
Marprelate  controversy  to  an  end  in  the  same 
year  1590.  Two  years  later,  September  1592,  the 
excitement  having  subsided,  Penry  had  the  rashness 
to  leave  Edinburgh  for  London,  where  he  presented 
an  address  to  the  Queen,  which  began,  'Madam, 
you  are  not  so  much  any  adversary  to  us  poor  men, 
as  unto  Jesus  Christ  and  the  commonwealth  of  his 
Kingdom.'  In  March  1593,  he  was  arrested, 
charged  with  inciting  to  rebellion  and  insurrection, 
on  the  evidence  not  of  his  printed  works  but  of 
MS.  notes  found  in  his  possession,  and  executed  in 
May.  He  was  born  in  1559,  and  thus  was  twenty- 
nine  when  the  Epistle  was  produced. 

The  authorship  of  the  Martinist  pamphlets  is 
shrouded  in  some  mystery.  But  it  is  at  least 
certain  that  John  Penry  the  Welshman  was  the 
prime  mover  in  the  matter,  and  the  manager  of  the 
secret  press.  He  was  probably  the  original  Martin, 
though  the  names  of  Barrow,  John  L^dall,  Job 
Throckmorton  and  Fenner  have  also  been  suggested ; 
but  Penry  was  not  the  only  writer  on  that  side,  as 
might  be  gathered  from  An  Almond  for  a  Parrat 
quoted  below.  We  may  accept  Mr  Arber's  conclu- 
sion ('  Introd.  Sketch  of  the  Marpr.  Cont.'  1880)  that 
Penry  was  the  principal  writer,  assisted  by  Throck- 
morton, a  Puritan  country  gentleman,  and  with 
the  use  of  some  memoranda  of  John  Udall,  who 
Tiimself  disliked  this  method  of  controversy. 

The  Epistle  was  secretly  printed  by  Penry  and 
Waldegrave  in  Mistress  Crane's  country-house  at 
East  Moulesey,  in  Surrey,  about  Michaelmas  1588. 
Waldegrave  was  engaged  to  superintend  the 
technical  arrangements :  Penry  corrected  the 
proofs,  and  paid  the  two  compositors.  About  a 
fifth  part  of  it  is  here  reproduced  as  a  fair  specimen 


114      THE  MARPRELATE  LIBELS 

of  the  whole.  In  fact,  both  in  this  and  his  other 
pamphlets,  Martin  harped  pretty  much  on  the  same 
string.] 

MARTIN  MARPRELATE 8  'EPISTLE: 
Oh  read  over  D.  John  Bridges,  for  it 

IS   A   WORTHY   WORKE  :  ^ 

Or  an  epitome  or  the 

FYRSTE  BOOKE  OF  THAT  RIGHT  WORSHIPFULL  VO- 

lume,  written  against  the  Puritans,  in  the  defence 

of  the  noble  cleargie,  by  as  worshipfull  a  prieste,  John 

Bridges,  Presbyter,  Priest  or  elder,  doctor  of  Divillitie, 

and  Deane  of  Sarum.     Wherein  the  arguments 

of  the  puritans  are  wisely  prevented,   that 

when  they  come  to  answere  M.  Doctor, 

they  must  needes  say  something 

that  hath  beene  spoken. 

Compiled  for  the  behoofe  and  overthrow 

of  the  Parsons,  Fyckers,  and  Currats,  that  have  lernt 

their  Catechismes,  and  are  past  grace  :  By  the 

reverend  and  worthie  Martin  Marprelate 

gentleman,    and   dedicated    to   the 

Confocationhouse. 

The  Epitome  is  not  yet  published,  but  it  shall 

be  when  the  Bishops  are  at  convenient  leysure  to 

view  the  same.     In  the  meanetime,  let  them 

be  content  with  this  learned  Epistle. 

^  Pp.  1-8.  Dr  John  Bridges  was  Dean  of  Salisbury  in 
1587,  when  he  wrote  a  large  4to  of  1,401  pages  called 
'  A  Defence  of  the  Government  established  in  the 
Church  of  England,'  etc.  This  is  the  book  here  sarcastic- 
ally recommended.  Bridges  became  Bishop  of  Oxford  in 
1603. 


THE  MARPRELATE  LIBELS       115 

Printed  oversea,  in  Europe,  within  two  fur- 

longs  of  a  Bounsing  Priest,  at  the  cost  and 

charges  of  M.  Marprelate,  gentleman. 

To  the 

Right  Puisante,  and  terrible  Priests, 

my  cleargie  masters  of  the  Confocation-house, 

whether  fickers  generall,  worshipfull  Paltripolitane, 

or  any  other  of  the  holy  league  of  subscription  : 

this  worke  I  recommend  unto  them  with  all  my  heart,  with 

a  desire  to  see  them  all  so  provided  for  one  day, 

as  I  would  wish,  which  I  promise  them 

shall  not  at  all  be  to  their  hurt. 

Right  poysond,  persecuting  and  terrible 
priests,  the  theame  of  mine  Epistle,  unto  your 
venerable  master-domes,  is  of  two  parts  (and 
the  Epitome  of  our  brother  Bridges  his  booke, 
shall  come  out  speedily).  First,  most  pitifully 
complayning,  Martin  Marprelate,  &c.  Secondly, 
may  it  please  your  good  worships,  &c. 

Most  pitifully  complayning  therefore,  you  are 
to  understand,  that  D.  Bridges  hath  written 
in  your  defence,  a  most  senceless  book,  and  I 
cannot  very  often  at  one  breath  come  to  a  full 
point,  when  I  read  the  same. 

Againe,  may  it  please  you  to  give  me  leave 
to  play  the  Duns  for  the  nonce  as  well  as  he, 
otherwise  dealing  with  master  doctors  booke,  I 
cannot  keepe  decorum  personoe.  And  may  it 
please  you,  if  I  be  too  absurd  in  any  place 
(either  in  this  Epistle,  or  that  Epitome)  to  ride 


ii6       THE  MARPRELATE  LIBELS 

to  Samm,  and  tlianke  his  Deanship  for  it. 
Because  I  coiild  not  deal  ^\ath  his  book 
commendablie  according  to  order,  unless  I 
should  be  sometimes  tediously  dunsticall  and 
absurd.  For  I  have  heard  som  cleargie  men 
say,  that  M.  Bridges  was  a  verie  patch  and  a 
duns,  when  he  was  in  Cambridg.  And  some 
say,  saving  your  reverence  that  are  Bb.^  that 
he  is  as  very  a  knave,  and  enemy  unto  the 
sinceritie  of  religion,  as  any  popish  prelate  in 
Rome.  But  the  patche  can  doe  the  cause  of 
sinceritie  no  hurt.  Naye,  he  hath  in  this  booke 
wonderfully  gi'aced  the  same  by  writing  against 
it.  For  I  have  hard  some  say,  that  whosoever 
will  read  his  booke,  shall  as  evidently  see 
the  goodnes  of  the  cause  of  reformation,  and 
the  poore  poore,  poore  nakednes  of  your 
government,  as  almost  in  reading  all  master 
Cartwright's  workes.  This  was  a  very  great 
oversight  in  his  grace  of  Cant.'^  to  suffer  such 
a  booke  to  come  out.  For  besides  that  an 
Archb.  is  very  weakely  defended  by  masse 
Deane,  he  hath  also  by  this  meanes  provoked 
many  to  write  against  his  gracious  fatherhood, 
who  perhaps  never  ment  to  take  pen  in  hand. 
And  brother  Bridges,  mark  what  Martin  tels 
you,  you  will  shortly  I  hope  have  twenty  fistes 

1  Bishops.  2  Canterbury  :  see  p.  127,  note. 


THE  MARPRELATE  LIBELS       117 

about  your  eares  more  the  your  own.  Take 
heed  of  writing  against  Puritanes  while  you 
live,  yet  they  say  that  his  grace  woulde  not 
have  the  booke  to  be  published,  and  if  you 
marke,  you  shall  not  find  scene  and  allowed  in 
the  title  of  the  booke.  Well  fare  old  mother 
experience  yet,  the  burnt  childe  dreads  the  fire  : 
his  grace  will  cary  to  his  grave  I  warrant  you, 
the  blowes  which  M.  Cart^wight  gave  him  in 
this  cause  :  and  therefore  no  marvell  though  he 
was  loth  to  have  any  other  so  banged  as  he 
himselfe  was  to  his  woe.  Others  say  that  John 
Cant,  oversawe  every  proofe.  If  he  did,  then 
he  oversaw  many  a  foule  salecisme,  many 
a  senceles  period,  and  far  more  slanders. 
Slanders  my  friends  ?  I  thinke  so.  For  what 
will  you  say,  if  our  brother  Bridges,  and  our 
cosen  Cosins,  with  manye  others,  have  had 
their  grace  of  the  Bb.  ad  practlcandum 
in  Flanders?  Howe  could  their  govern- 
ment stand,  unles  they  should  slander 
their  brethren,  and  make  her  Maiestie  be- 
leeve,  that  the  Church  gouernment  prescribed 
in  the  worde,  would  overthrow  her  regi- 
ment, if  it  were  received  in  our  Church,  and 
that  the  seekers  of  reformation,  are  a  sort 
of  Malcontents,  and  enemies  unto  the  state. 
Item  may  it  please  your  worthy  worshipps. 


ii8       THE  MARPRELATE  LIBELS 

to  receive  this  courteously  to  favour  at  my 
hand,  without  choller  or  laughing.  For  my  L.^ 
of  Winchester  is  very  chollericke  and  peevish, 
so  are  his  betters  at  Lambeth,  and  D.  Cosins 
hath  a  very  good  grace  in  iesting,^  and  I  woulde 
he  had  a  little  more  grace,  and  a  handful  or 
two  more  of  learning,  against  he  answer  the 
Abstract  next.  Nay  beleeve  me,  it  is  inough 
for  him  to  answere  the  Counterpoyson.^  And 
I  am  none  of  the  malicious  sectaries,  whereof 
John  of  London*  spake  the  last  Lent,  1588, 
in  his  letters  written  to  the  Archdeacon  of 
Essex,  to  forbid  publike  fastes.  Ha,  ha,  D. 
Copcot  are  ye  there,  why  do  not  you  answere 
the  confutation  of  your  sermon  at  Pauls  crosse? 
It  is  a  shame  for  your  grace  John  of  Cant, 
that  Cartwrights^   bookes   have   been   now  a 

1  Lord. 

-  The  allusion  is  to  the  '  Abstract  of  certain  Acts  of 
Parliament  of  certain  Injunctions,'  &c.,  published  in 
1584,  to  which  Dr  Cosins  replied  by  authority  of  Arch- 
bishop Whitgift  the  same  year. 

^  Republished  in  A  Parte  of  a  Register. 

■*  John  Aylmer,  Bishop  of  London. 

5  See  Introd,  note  to  Cartwright's  Admonition.  As 
a  matter  of  fact  Whitgift  did  reply  to  the  Admonition, 
and,  on  Cartwright's  writing  a  rejoinder,  replied  again, 
but  when  Cartwright  produced  a  further  Replie  no  one 
answered  him.  Hence  the  complaint.  But  a  controversie 
had  to  end  somewhere,  even  in  the  sixteenth  century. 
This  boast  of  victory  was  answered  in  Almond  for  a 
Paratt  thus :  '  Therefore  first  I  would  know  of  sweete 
M.  sauce  malapert  whether  he  would  have  the  care  of  the 


THE  MARPRELATE  LIBELS       119 

dozen  yeares  almost  unanswered :  you  first 
provoked  him  to  write  and  you  first  have 
received  the  foyle.  If  you  can  answer  those 
books,  why  do  you  suffer  the  Puritans  to  insult 
and  reioyce  at  your  silence.  If  you  cannot, 
why  are  you  an  Archb.  He  hath  prooved 
the  calling  to  be  unlawfull  and  Antichristian. 
You  dare  not  stand  to  the  defence  of  it.  Now 
most  pitifully  complayneth,  M.  Marprelate, 
desireth  you  either  to  aunswere  what  hathe 
beene  written  against  the  gracelesnes  of  your 
Archbishoprick,  or  to  give  over  the  same,  and 
to  be  a  meanes  that  no  byshop  in  the  land,  be 
a  Lord  any  more.  I  hope  one  day  her  ^laiestie 
will  either  see  that  the  L.  Bb.  proove  their 
calling  lawfull  by  the  word,  or  as  John  of 
London  prophesied  saying,  come  downe  you 
bishopps  from  your  thousands,  and  content  you 
with  your  hundreds,  let  your  diet  be  pristlike 
and  not  princelik,  &c.,  quoth  John  Elmar  in 
his   Harborow   of   faithful    subiects.^      But   I 

Commonwealth  .  .  .  resigned  to  the  retorting  of  T.  C. 
his  unreverent  railings. '  The  gravity  and  mildness  of  the 
one,  it  continues,  could  not  stoop  to  the  jangling  levity  of 
the  other  ;  and  '  as  there  is  nothing  more  unseemly  then 
to  aunswere  the  froward,  so  there  is  nothing  more  profit- 
able then  scilence  to  such  as  are  provokt.'  See  also  p.  85. 
^  Bishop  Aylmer's  An  Harhorowe  for  Faithfull  and 
Trewe  Siibiectes  against  the  late  bloivne  Blaste  concerninge  the 
Government  of  Wemen  was  a  reply  to  John  Knox's  'First 


I20       THE  MARPRELATE  LIBELS 

pray  you  B.  John  dissolve  this  one  question 
to  your  brother  Martin  :  if  this  prophesie  of 
yours  come  to  passe  in  your  dayes,  who  shal 
be  B.  of  London  ?  And  will  you  not  sweare 
as  commonly  you  do,  like  a  lew^d  swag,  and 
say,  by  my  faith,  by  my  faith  my  masteis,  this 
geare  goeth  hard  with  us.  Nowe  may  it  please 
your  grace  with  y^  rest  of  your  worships,  to 
procure  that  the  Puritans  may  one  day  have 
a  free  disputation  with  you,  about  y^  contro- 
versies of  the  Church,  and  if  you  be  not  set  at 
a  flat  non  plus,  and  quite  over  throwen,  ile  be  a 
Lord  B.  my  selfe :  looke  to  your  selves,  I  thinke 
you  have  not  long  to  raigne.  Amen.  And  take 
heed  brethren  of  your  reverend  and  learned 
brother,  Martin  Marprelate.  For  he  meaneth 
in  these  reasons  following  I  can  tell  you,  to 
prove  that  you  ought  not  to  be  maintained 
by  the  authoritie  of  the  Magistrate,  in  any 
Christian  commonwealth  :  Martin  is  a  shrewd 
fellow,  and  reasoneth  thus.  Those  that  are 
pettie  popes  and  pettie  Antichrists,  ought  not 
to  be  maintained  in  anie  Christian  common- 
Blast  of  the  Trumpet  against  the  Monstrous  Regiment  of 
Women,'  q.v.  Aylmer  comes  in  for  a  good  deal  of  abuse 
at  Marprelate's  hands,  for  he  was  an  active  member  of 
the  High  Commission  Court,  and  it  was  through  him 
that  Cart  Wright  was  imprisoned  in  1584  ;  but  in  theology- 
he  differed  little  from  his  victims,  for  the  Harborowe  is 
full  of  extreme  Puritan  opinions. 


THE  MARPRELATE  LIBELS       121 

wealth.  But  everie  Lord  B.  in  England,  as 
for  ilsample,  John  of  Cant.,  John  of  London, 
John  Excetor,  John  Rochester,  Thomas  of 
Winchester.  The  B.  of  Lincolne,  of  Worcester, 
of  Peterborow,  and  to  be  briefe,  all  the  Bb.  in 
England,  Wales,  and  Ireland,  are  pettie  popes, 
and  pettie  Antichristes.^  Therefore  no  Lord  B. 
(now  I  pray  thee  good  Martin  speake  out,  if 
ever  thou  diddest  speake  out,  that  hir  Maiestie 
and  the  counsell  may  heare  thee)  is  to  be  toller- 
ated  in  any  christian  commonwelth :  and  there- 
fore neither  John  of  Cant.  John  of  London,  &c. 
are  to  be  tollerated  in  any  christian  common- 
wealth. What  say  you  now  brother  Bridges  is 
it  good  writing  against  Puritanes.  Can  you 
denie  any  part  of  your  learned  brother  Martin 
his  syllogisme.2  We  denie  your  minor  M.  Mar- 
prelate  say  the  Bb.  and  their  associats.  Yea 
my  learned  masters,  are  you  good  at  that?  what 
do  you  brethren  ?  say  me  that  againe  ?  do  you 
denie  my  minor  ?  And  that  be  all  you  can  say, 
to  denie  L.  Bb.  to  be  pettie  popes,  turne  me 
loose  to  the  priests  in  y*  point,  for  I  am  olde 
suersvie   at  the   proofe   of   such    matters,  ile 

1  What  malapert  knaves  are  these  that  cannot  be  content 
to  stand  by  and  here,  but  they  must  teach  a  gentleman  how 
to  speake. 

2  Looke  the  doctors  books,  page  107,  line  20 ;  a7id  page 
113,  line  13. 


122       THE  MARPRELATE  LIBELS 

presently   marre  the   fashion    of   their    Lord- 
ships. 

They  are  pettie  popes,  and  pettie  Antichrists, 
whosoever  usurpe  the  authority  of  pastors 
over  them,  who  by  the  ordinance  of  God,  are 
to  bee  under  no  pastors.  For  none  but  Anti- 
christian  popes  and  popelings  ever  claimed  this 
authoritie  unto  themselves,  especiallie  when  it 
was  gainsaid,  and  accounted  Antichristian, 
generally  by  the  most  Churches  in  the  world. 
But  our  L.  bishops  usurpe  authoritie  over 
those,  who  by  the  ordinance  of  God,  are  to  be 
under  no  pastors,  and  that  in  such  an  age, 
as  wherein  this  authoritie  is  gainsaid,  and 
accounted  Antichristian,  generally  by  all  the 
Churches  in  the  world  for  y®  most  part. 
Therefore  our  L.  Bb.  what  sayest  thou  man, 
our  L.  bishopps,  (I  say)  as  John  of  Canterburie, 
Thomas  of  Winchester  (I  will  spare  John  of 
London  for  this  time,  for  it  may  be  he  is  at 
boules,^  and  it  is  a  pitie  to  trouble  my  good 
brother,  lest  he  should  sweare  too  bad)  my 
reverend  prelate  of  Lichfielde,"  with  the  rest 
of  that  swinishe  rable,  are  pettie  Antichrists, 
pettie  popes,  proud  prelates,  intollerable  with- 

^  The  game. 

-  M.  Marprelate  you  put  more  than  the  question  in  the 
conclusion  of  your  syllogisme. 


THE  MARPRELATE  LIBELS       123 

standers  of  reformation,  enemies  of  the  gospell, 
and  most  covetous  wretched  priests.  This  is  a 
pretie  matter,  y*  standers  by,  must  be  so  busie 
in  other  mens  games  :  why  sawceboxes  must 
you  be  pratling?  you  are  as  mannrely  as 
bishops,  in  medHng  with  that  you  have  nothing 
to  doe,  as  they  do  in  taking  upon  them  civill 
offices.  I  thinke  for  any  maners  either  they  or 
you  have,  that  you  were  brought  up  in 
Bridewell.  But  it  is  well  that  since  you  last 
interrupted  me  (for  now  this  is  the  second 
time)  you  seeme  to  have  lernt  your  Cato  de 
moribus  in  that  you  keepe  yom*  selves  on  the 
margent.  Woulde  you  be  answered?  Then 
you  must  know,  that  I  have  set  downe 
nothing  but  the  trueth  in  the  conclusion, 
and  the  syllogismes  are  mine  owne,  I  may 
do  what  I  will  with  them,  and  thus  holde 
you  content.  But  what  say  you  my  horned 
masters  of  the  Confocation  house?  you  denie 
my  minor  againe  I  know.  And  thus  I  proove 
it.     First 

That  our  Prelates  usurpe  their  authoritie. 

They  usurpe  their  authoritie,  who  violently 
and  unlawfully,  retaine  those  under  their 
government,  that  both  woulde  and  ought  (if 
they  might)  to  shake  of  that  yoke  wherewith 


124      THE  MARPRELATE  LIBELS 

they  are  kept  under.  But  our  Lord  bishops 
retaine  such  (namely  other  pastors)  and  unlaw- 
fully under  their  yoke,  who  both  woulde  and 
ought  to  reiect  the  same.  For  all  the  pastors 
in  the  land,  that  deserve  the  names  of  pastors, 
are  against  their  wil  under  the  bishops  iurisdic- 
tions.  And  they  are  unlawfully  detained  by 
them,  because  no  pastor  can  be  lawfully  kept 
under  the  pastoral  (I  meane  not  the  civill) 
authoritie  of  any  one  man.  Therfore  our  Bb. 
and  proud  popish,  presumptuous,  profane, 
paultrie,  pestilent  and  pernicious  prelates, 
bishop  of  Hereforde  and  all :  are  first  usurpers 
to  beginne  the  matter  withall. 
Secondly 

Our  Prelates  claime  this  authoritie  over  those, 
who  by  the  ordinance  of  God,  are  to  be 
under  no  Pastors. 

That  is,  they  claime  pastorall  authoritie  over 
other  ministers  and  pastors,  who  by  the 
ordinaunce  of  God,  are  appointed  to  be 
pastors  and  shepheards  to  feede  others,  and 
not  sheep,  or  such  as  are  to  have  shepheards, 
by  whom  they  are  to  be  fedd  and  overseene : 
which  authoritie  the  bishops  claime  unto 
themselves.  For  they  say  that  they  are 
pastors  of  al  the  pastors  within  their  dioces. 


THE  MARPRELATE  LIBELS       125 

And  take  this  of  M.  Marprelates  worde,  that 
there  is  no  pastor  of  pastors,  but  he  is  a  pope. 
For  who  but  a  pope  will  claime  this  authoritie. 
Thirdly, 

This  authoritie  of  our  L.  Bh.  in  England,  is 
accounted  Antichristian  of  the  most 
Churches  in  the  tvorlde. 

As  of  the  Heluetian,  the  Scottish,  French, 
Bohemian,  and  the  Churches  of  the  low 
countries,  the  Churches  of  Polonia,  Denmarke, 
within  the  dominions  of  the  Count  Palatine, 
of  the  Churches  in  Saxonie,  and  Swevia,  &c. 
which  you  shall  see  evidently  proved  in  the 
Harmonic  of  the  Confessions  of  all  those 
Churches,  Section  the  eleventh.  Which  Har- 
monic, was  translated  and  printed  by  that 
puritan  Cambridg  printer,  Thomas  Thomas.^ 
And  although  the  booke  came  out  by  publike 
authoritie,  yet  by  your  leave  the  Bishops  have 
called  them  in,  as  things  against  their  state. 
And  trust  me,  his  grace  will  owe  that  puritane 
printer  as  good  as  turne,  as  hee  paide  unto 

^  Thomas  Thomas  was  an  M.A.  of  King's  College,  and 
the  author  of  a  Dictionary  (1588) ;  he  was  licensed  printer 
to  the  University  in  1582.  When  the  translation  of  the 
Harmony  was  being  printed,  1586,  Whitgift  ordered 
the  Vice-Chancellors  and  Heads  to  stop  it :  but  it  was 
published  the  same  year,  with  '  alowed  by  publique 
authoritie '  in  the  title-page. 


126       THE  MARPRELATE  LIBELS 

Robert  Walde-grave  for  his  sawciness  in  print- 
ing my  frend  and  deare  brother  Diotrephes  his 
Dialogue.^  Well  frend  Thomas  I  warne  you 
before  hand,  look  to  your  selfe. 

Well  nowe  to  mine  eloquence,  for  I  can  doe 
it  I  tell  you.  Who  made  the  porter  of  his  gate 
a  dumb  minister  ?  Dumbe  John  of  London.^ 
Who  abuseth  her  Maiesties  subiects,  in  urging 
them  to  subscribe  contrary  to  lawe  ?  John  of 
London.  Who  abuseth  the  high  commission, 
as  much  as  any?  John  London,  (and  D. 
Stanop  to).  Whoe  bound  an  Essex  minister,  in 
£200  to  weare  the  surplice  on  Easter  day  last  ? 
John  London.  Who  hath  cut  downe  the 
Elmes  at  Fulham  ?  ^  John  London.  Who  is  a 
carnall  defender  of  the  breache  of  the  Sabboth 
in  all  the  places  of  his  abode  ?  John  London. 
Who  forbiddeth  men  to  humble  themselves  in 
fasting  and  prayer  before  the  Lorde,  and  then 

^  This  famous  dialogue  is  called  '  The  State  of  the 
Church  of  England  laide  open  in  a  Conference  between 
Diotrephes  a  Byshoppe,  Tertullus  a  Papiste,  Demetrius 
a  Usurer,  Pandochus  an  Inne-keeper,  and  Paul  a  preacher 
of  the  Word  of  God."     See  A  Parte  of  a  Register. 

-  Aylmer  had  been  tutor  to  Lad}?^  Jane  Grey,  and  was  a 
zealous  reformer  in  Edward  VI.  's  reign.  It  was  he  who,  by 
his  sermon  against  dress,  drew  from  Elizabeth  the  threat 
that  *  If  he  held  more  discourse  of  such  matters,  she 
would  fit  him  for  heaven  ;  but  he  should  walk  thither 
without  a  staff,  and  leave  his  mantle  behind  him.' 

■^  lie  mahe  you  wenry  of  it  dumbe  John,  excejit  yott  leave 
persecuting. 


THE  MARPRELATE  LIBELS       127 

can  say  unto  the  preachers,  now  you  were  best 
to  tell  the  people,  that  we  forbidd  fastes? 
John  London.  Who  goeth  to  bowles  upon  the 
Sabboth?  Dumbe  dunsticall  John  of  good 
London,  hath  done  all  this. 

Now  may  it  please  you  to  examine  my 
worthines  your  brother  Martin,  and  see 
whether  I  saide  not  true  in  the  storie  of  Gyles 
Wiggington,  where  I  have  set  downe,  y^  the 
preaching  of  the  word  is  an  heresie,  which  his 
grace  ^  doth  mortally  abhorre  and  persecute,  I 
can  proove  it  without  doubt.  And  first  that 
he  persecuteth  the  preaching  of  the  worde 
(whether  it  be  an  heresie  or  not)  both  in  the 
preacher  and  the  hearer  :  the  articles  of  sub- 
scription, the  silencing  of  so  many  learned  and 
worthy  preachers  do  evidently  shew,  and  if 
you  doubt  hereof,  let  my  worshipp  understand 
thereof,  and  in  my  next  treatize,  I  shal  prove 
the  matter  to  be  cleare  with  a  witnes,  and  I 
hope  to  your  smal  commendations,  that  will 

1  Whitgift,  In  spite  of  his  undoubted  severity,  Mosheim 
says  of  him  that  he  was  '  disinterested,  consistent, 
single-minded,  liberal,  and  discerning  above  most  men. 
His  great  natural  blemish  was  hastiness  of  temper.  This, 
however,  he  corrected  by  a  spirit  so  thoroughly  con- 
siderate and  forgiving  that  his  friends  rather  apprehended 
from  him  undue  levity.'  But  'when  principle  was  at 
stake  he  would  make  no  compromise.'  He  was  an 
extreme  Calvinist,  and,  in  1595,  drew  up  the  famous,  or 
infamous,  Lambeth  Articles.     See  also  p.  85-6. 


128       THE  MARPRELATE  LIBELS 

deny  such  a  cleare  point.  On  the  other  side, 
that '  he  accounteth  preaching  to  be  an  heresie, 
I  am  now  to  insist  on  the  proofe  of  that  poynt. 
But  first  you  must  know,  that  he  did  not 
account  simple  preaching  to  be  an  heresie,  but 
to  holde  that  preaching  is  the  onely  ordinary 
meanes  to  sahiation,  this  he  accounteth  as  an 
heresie,  this  he  mortally  condemned.  The  case 
thus  stoode,  John  Penrie  the  welsheman  (I 
thinke  his  gi-ace  and  my  brother  London,  would 
be  better  acquaint  with  him  and  they  could 
tell  howe)  about  the  beginning  of  Lent,  1587, 
offered  a  supplication  and  a  booke  to  the 
Parliament,  entreating  that  some  order  might 
be  taken,  for  calling  his  countrie  unto  the 
knowledge  of  God.  For  his  bolde  attempt,  he 
was  called  before  his  grace  with  others  of  the 
high  commission,  as  Thomas  of  Winchester, 
John  London,  &c.  After  that  his  grace  had 
eased  his  stomacke  in  calling  him  boy,  knave, 
varlet,  slanderer,  libeller,  lewde  boy,  lewd 
slanderer,  &c.,  (this  is  true,  for  I  have  scene  the 
notes  of  their  conference^)  at  the  length  a  poynt 
of  his  booke  began  to  be  examined,  where  non- 
residents are  thought  intollerable.  Here  the 
Lorde  of  good  London  asked  M.  Penrie,  what 

1  [ted]. 

2  They  were  reprinted  in  A  Parte  of  a  Register. 


THE  MARPRELATE  LIBELS       129 

he  could  say  against  that  kind  of  cattell, 
aunswere  was  made  that  they  were  odious  in  the 
sight  of  God  and  man,  because  as  much  as  in 
them  he,  they  bereave  the  people  over  whom 
they  thrust  themselves,  of  the  ordinarie  meanes 
of  salvation,  which  was  the  word  preached. 
John  London  demaunded  whether  preacliing 
was  the  onely  meanes  to  salvation  ?  Penrie 
answered,  that  it  was  the  onely  ordinarie 
meanes,  although  the  Lorde  was  not  so  tyed 
unto  it,  but  that  hee  could  extraordinarily  use 
other  meanes.  That  preaching  was  the  onely 
ordinary  meanes,  he  confirmed  it  by  those 
places  of  Scripture,  Rom.  x.  14,  1  Cor.  i.  21, 
Ephes.  i.  13.  This  point  being  a  long  time 
canvassed,  at  the  length  his  worship  of 
Winchester  rose  up,  and  mildly  after  his 
manner,  brast  forth  into  these  words.  I  assure 
you  my  Lords,  it  is  an  execrable  heresie :  An 
heresie  (quoth  John  Penry)  I  thanke  God  that 
ever  I  knewe  that  heresie  ;  It  is  such  an  heresie, 
that  I  will  by  the  grace  of  God,  sooner  leave 
my  hfe  then  I  will  leave  it.  What  sir,  (quoth 
the  Archb.)  I  tell  thee  it  is  an  heresie,  and  thou 
shalt  recant  it  as  an  heresie?  Naye  (quoth 
Penrie)  never  so  long  as  I  live  godwilling.  I 
will  leave  this  storie  for  shame,  I  am  weary  to 
hear  your  grace  so  absurd.     What  say  you  to 


I  go       THE  MARPRELATE  LIBELS 

this  geare  my  masters  of  the  coiifocation  house  ? 
we  shal  have  shortly  a  good  religion  in  England 
among  the  bishops  ?  if  Paule  be  sayd  of  them 
to  write  an  heresie. 

But  lest  you  should  thinke,  that  he  hath  not 
as  good  a  gift  in  speaking  against  his  con- 
science, as  my  L.  of  Cant,  is  endued  with : 
you  are  to  understand,  that  both  in  that 
sermon  of  his,  and  in  another  which  he 
preached  at  the  court  the  same  Lent,  he  pro- 
tested before  God,  and  the  congregation  where 
he  stood,  ^  y*  there  was  not  in  the  world  at  this 
day :  nay  there  had  not  bin  since  the  Apostles 
time,  such  a  flourishing  estate  of  the  Church, 
as  we  have  now  in  England.  Is  it  any  mar- 
vaile  that  we  have  so  many  SAvine,  dumbe 
dogs,  nonresidents,  with  their  iournemen  the 
hedge  priests,  so  many  lewd  livers,  as  theeves, 
murtherers,  adulterers,  drunkards,  cormorants, 
raschals,  so  many  ignorant  and  atheistical 
dolts,  so  many  covetous  popish  Bb.  in  our 
ministry :  and  so  many  and  so  monstrous  cor- 
ruptions in  our  Church,  and  yet  likely  to  have 
no  redresse  :  Seeing  our  impudent,  shamelesse, 
and  wainscote  faced  bishops,  like  beasts,  con- 
trary to  the  knowledge  of  all  men,  and  against 

^  A  flattering  hypocrit. 


THE  MARPRELATE  LIBELS       131 

their  own  consciences,  dare  in  the  eares  of  her 
Maiestie,  affirme  all  to  be  well,  where  there  is 
nothing  but  sores  and  blisters,  yea  where  the 
gi-ief  is  even  deadly  at  the  heart.  Nay  saies 
my  L.  of  Winchester  (like  a  monstrous  hypo- 
crite, for  he  is  a  very  duns,  not  able  to  defende 
an  argument,  but  till  he  come  to  the  pinch, 
he  will  cog  and  face  it  out,  for  his  face  is 
made  of  seasoned  wainscot,  and  wil  lie  as  fast 
as  a  dog  can  trot)  I  have  said  it,  I  doe  say  it, 
and  I  have  said  it.  And  say  I,  you  shall  one 
day  answere  it  (without  repentance)  for  abus- 
ing the  Church  of  God  and  her  Maiestie  in 
this  sort.  I  would  wish  you  leave  this 
villanie,  and  the  rest  of  your  divellishe 
practises  against  God  his  saintes,  lest  you 
answer  it  where  your  pievish  and  choUerick 
simplicitie  will  not  excuse  you.  I  am 
ashamed  to  think  that  the  Churche  of  Eng- 
land shoulde  have  these  wretches  for  the 
eyes  thereof,  that  woulde  have  the  people 
content  themselves  with  bare  reading  onely, 
and  holde  that  they  may  be  saved  thereby 
ordinarily. 


132       THE  MARPRELATE  LIBELS 

Conditions  of  Peace  to  be  inviolablie  kejjt  for 
ever,  bettveene  the  reverend  and  worthy 
master  Martin  Marprelate  gentleman  on 
the  onepartie,  and  the  reverend  fathers  his 
brethren,  the  Lord  bishops  of  this  lande.^ 

1.  In  primis,  the  said  Lord  Bb.  must 
promise  and  observe,  without  fi*aud  or  col- 
lusion, and  that  as  much  as  in  them  lyeth, 
they  labor  to  promote  the  preaching  of  the 
worde  in  every  part  of  this  land. 

2.  That  hereafter  they  admitt  none  unto  the 
ministerie,  but  such  as  shalbe  knowen,  both 
for  their  godlinesse  and  learning,  to  be  fit  for 
the  ministerie,  and  not  these  neyther  without 
cure,  unlesse  they  be  Colledge  ministers  of 
eyther  of  the  Universities,  and  in  no  case  they 
suffer  any  to  be  nonresidents :  and  that  they 
suifer  M.  Cartwrightes  answere  to  the  Rhemish 
Testament  to  be  published. 

1  It  is  not  merely  in  jest  that  Marprelate  proposes 
these  conditions.  The  Puritans,  it  must  be  remembered, 
were  perfectly  confident  of  success  ;  indeed,  among  some 
papers  seized  by  the  Archbishop's  officers  in  this  very 
year,  1588,  we  find  evidence  that  they  had  already  begun 
to  allot  the  spoil,  and  to  discuss,  '  how,  when  all  the 
Church's  revenues  that  there  were  should  be  converted 
to  maintain  their  presbyteries,  her  Majesty  should  be 
recompensed  for  her  first-fruits  and  tenths,  for  that  they 
would  pay  none,  as  being  unlawful.'  (Strype's  Life  of 
Whitgift,  292.) 


THE  MARPRELATE  LIBELS       133 

3.  That  neytlier  they  nor  their  servants,  vz. 
their  Archdeacons,  Chancellors,  nor  any  other 
of  the  high  commission,  which  serve  their  vile 
affections,  urge  any  to  subscribe  contrary  to 
the  statute  13.  Eliza,  and  that  they  suspend 
or  silence  none,  but  such,  as  either  for  their 
false  doctrine,  or  evill  life,  shall  show  them- 
selves, to  be  unworthy  the  places  of  ministers  : 
so  that  none  be  suspended  or  silenced,  eyther 
for  speaking  (when  their  text  giveth  them 
occasion)  against  the  corruptions  of  the  Church, 
for  refusing  to  weare  the  surplice,  cap,  tippet,^ 
&c.,  or  omitting  the  corruptions  of  the  book  of 
common  prayers,  as  churching  of  women,  the 
crosse  in  baptisme,  the  ring  in  marriage,  &c. 

4.  That  none  be  molested  by  them  or  any 
their  aforesaid  servants,  for  this  my  booke, 
for  not  kneeling  at  the  communion,  or  for 
resorting  on  the  Saboth  (if  they  have  not 
preachers  of  their  owne)  to  heare  the  word 
preached,  and  to  receive  the  Sacraments. 

5.  Lastly,  that  never  hereafter  they  profane 
excommunication  as  they  have  done,  by  ex- 
communicating alone  in  their  chambers,  and 
that  for  trifles :  yes  before  mens  causes  be 
heard.  That  they  never  forbid  publike  fasts, 
molest  either   preacher,   or  hearer,   for  being 

^  Now  generally  known  as  the  black  scarf. 


134      T'HE  MARPRELATE  LIBELS 

present  at  such  assemblies.  Briefly,  that  they 
never  slander  the  cause  of  reformation,  or  the 
furtherers  thereof,  in  terming  the  cause  of  the 
name  of  Anabaptisterie,  schisme,  &c.,  and  the 
men  puritans,  and  enemies  to  the  state. 

These  be  the  conditions,  which  you  brethren 
bishops,  shalbe  bound  to  keepe  inviolably  on 
your  behalfe.  And  I  your  brother  Martin  on 
the  other  side,  do  faithfully  promise  upon  the 
performaunce  of  the  premisses  by  you,  never  to 
make  any  more  of  your  knavery  know^ie  unto 
the  worlde.  And  howbeit  that  I  have  before 
threatened  my  brother  Bridges,  in  the  cause 
of  his  superior  priest,  and  your  Antichristian 
callings  :  notwithstanding,  I  will  wi-ite  no  more 
of  your  dealings,  unles  you  violate  the  former 
conditions.  The  conditions  you  see,  are  so 
reasonable,  I  might  binde  you  to  give  over 
your  places  which  are  Antichristian :  but  I 
doe  not,  lest  men  shoulde  thinke  me  to  quarrell, 
and  seeke  occasions  for  the  nonce  to  fall  out 
with  my  brethren.  Therefore  I  require  no 
more  but  such  things  as  all  the  worlde  will 
thinke  you  unworthy  to  live,  if  you  grant  them 
not.  And  this  I  doe  the  rather,  because  you 
should  not,  according  to  your  olde  fashion,  say 
y*  my  worship  doth  for  mallice  lay  open  your 
infirmities :   nay  I   have  published  not  one  of 


THE  MARPRELATE  LIBELS       135 

your  secret  falts,  what  you  have  not  blushed 
to  commit  in  the  face  of  the  sun,  and  in  the 
iustifing  whereof  you  yet  stand,  these  things 
onely  have  I  published.  The  best  servants  of 
God  I  know,  have  their  infirmities.  But  none 
of  them  will  stand  in  the  maintenance  of  their 
corruptions  as  you  do,  and  that  to  the  dis- 
honour of  God  and  the  mine  of  his  Church. 
You  must  either  amend,  or  shortly  you  will 
bring  our  church  to  mine  :  therefore  it  is 
time  that  your  deahngs  were  better  looked 
unto. 

You  will  go  about  I  know,  to  prove  my 
booke  to  be  a  libell,  but  I  have  prevented  you 
of  y^  advantage  in  lawe,  both  in  bringing  in 
nothing  but  matters  of  fact,  whiche  may  easily 
be  prooved,  if  you  dare  denie  them :  and  also 
in  setting  my  name  to  my  booke.  Well  I 
offer  you  peace  upon  the  former  conditions,  if 
you  will  keepe  them,  but  if  you  violate  them 
either  in  whole  or  in  part  (for  why  should  you 
breake  anye  one  of  them)  then  your  learned 
brother  Martin  doth  proclaime  open  war  against 
you,  and  entendeth  to  worke  your  woe  2 
maner  of  wayes  as  followeth.  First  I  will 
watch  you  at  every  halfe  turne,  and  whatso- 
ever you  do  amisse,  I  will  presently  publish 
it :   you  shall  not  call  one  honest  man  before 


136       THE  MARPRELATE  LIBELS 

you,  but  I  will  get  his  examination  ^  (and  you 
thinke  I  shall  knowe  nothing  of  the  oppression 
of  your  tenants  by  your  briberie,  &c.)  and 
publish  it,  if  you  deal  not  according  to  the 
former  conditions.  To  this  purpose  I  wil 
place  a  young  Martin  ^  in  everie  diocesse,  which 
may  take  notice  of  you  practizes.  Do  you 
think  that  you  shalbe  suffred  any  longer,  to 
break  the  law  of  God,  and  to  tyi*annize  over 
his  people  her  Maiesties  subiects,  and  no  man 
tell  you  of  it  ?  No,  I  warrant  you.  And  rather 
then  I  will  be  disappointed  of  my  purpose, 
I  will  place  a  Martin  in  everie  parish.  In  part 
of  Suffolk  and  Essex,  I  thinke  I  were  best  to 
have  2  in  a  parishe.  I  hope  in  time  they 
shalbe  as  worthie  Martins  as  their  father  is, 
every  one  of  them  able  to  mar  a  prelate.  Marke 
what  wil  be  the  issue  of  these  things,  if  you 
still  keep  your  olde  byas.  I  knowe  you  would 
not  have  your  dealings  so   knowne  unto  the 

'^  I.e.  his  cross-examination  at  the  hands  of  the  Com- 
missioners. Some  of  these  were  published  in  the  well- 
known  collection  of  tracts  A  Parte  of  a  Register.  They 
naturally  formed  a  useful  kind  of  minor  martyrology. 

^  The  Puritans,  soon  after  1580,  began  to  hold  frequent 
provincial  assemblies.  At  one  of  these,  in  London,  1588, 
it  was  agreed  '  that  the  oppressions  offered  to  others, 
and  especially  to  the  Ministers,  by  the  Bishops  and  the 
Bishop's  officers,  and  by  their  courts  should  be  gathered 
and  registered.'  Strype  observes  that  this  is  according  to 
the  '  young  Martin  '  threat. 


THE  MARPRELATE  LIBELS       137 

worlde,  as  I  and  my  sonnes  will  blase  them. 
Secondly,  al  the  books  that  I  have  in  store 
already  of  your  doings,  shalbe  published  upon 
the  breache  of  the  former  covenants  or  any 
of  them. 

Men  when  commonly  they  dedicate  bookes 
unto  any,  enter  into  commendations  of  those 
unto  whom  they  write.  But  I  care  not  an  I 
owe  you  my  cleargie  masters  a  commenda- 
tions, and  pay  you  when  you  better  deserve 
it.  In  stead  thereof  I  will  give  you 
some  good  counsel  and  advice,  which  if  you 
foUowe,  I  assure  you  it  will  be  the  better 
for  you. 

Fii'st  I  would  advise  you  as  before  I  have 
said,  to  set  at  libertie  all  the  preachers  that 
you  have  restrained  from  preaching :  otherwise 
it  shalbe  the  worse  for  you,  my  reason  is  this. 
The  people  are  altogether  discontented  for 
want  of  teachers.  Some  of  them  alreadie 
runne  into  corners,  and  more  are  like,  because 
you  keepe  the  meanes  of  knowledge  fi'om 
them.  Running  into  corners  will  breed  Ana- 
baptistrie,  Anabaptistrie  will  allienate  the 
heartes  of  the  subiects  from  their  lawfull 
govern  our.  And  you  are  the  cause  hereof. 
And  wil  not  her  Maiestie  then  think  you, 
require  the  hearts  of  her  subiectes  at  yoiu* 
I 


138       THE  MARPRELATE  LIBELS 

handes,  when  she  shal  imderstaDcl  that  they 
are  ahenated  (as  God  forbid  they  should)  from 
her  by  your  means?  Yes  I  warrant  you. 
And  if  they  should  put  up  a  suppHcation  unto 
her  highnesse,  that  their  preachers  might  be 
restored  unto  them,  I  doubt  not  but  they 
should  be  heard.  I  can  tell  you  she  tendreth 
the  estate  of  her  people,  and  will  not  dis- 
courage their  hearts,  in  casting  of  their  suits, 
to  maynetaine  your  pride  and  covetousnesse : 
you  were  then  better  to  set  the  preachers  at 
libertie,  then  to  suffer  your  cruelty  and  evill 
dealing  to  be  made  known  unto  her.  For  so 
they  shall  be  sure  I  doubt  not  to  prevaile  in 
their  suit,  and  you  to  go  by  the  worse.  And 
try  if  her  Maiestie  be  not  shortly  mooved  in 
this  suit.  To  it  my  masters  roundly,  you  that 
meane  to  deale  herein,  and  on  my  life  you  set 
the  prelats  in  such  a  quandare,  as  they  shal  not 
know^  wher  to  stand.  Now  M.  Prelates  I  will 
give  you  some  more  counsell,  follow  it.  Re- 
pent cleargie  men,  and  especially  bishopps, 
preach  sayth  Bb.  and  sweare  no  more  by  it, 
give  over  your  Lordly  callings :  reform  your 
families  and  your  children :  They  are  the 
patterne  of  loosenesse,  withstand  not  the 
knowen  truth  no  longer  :  you  have  seduced 
her    Maiestie    and    her    people.      Praye    her 


THE  MARPRELATE  LIBELS       139 

Maiestie  to  forgive  you,  and  the  Lord  first  to 
put  away  your  sinnes.  Your  government  is 
Antichristian,  decieve  the  Lord  no  longer 
thereby :  you  wil  grow  from  evil  to  worse 
unlesse  betimes  you  return.  You  are  now 
worse  then  you  were  29  yeeres  ago :  write  no 
more  against  the  cause  of  reformation  :  your 
ungodlinesse  is  made  more  manifest  by  your 
writings :  And  because  you  cannot  answer 
what  hath  bene  written  against  you,  yeeld  imto 
the  trueth.  If  you  should  write,  deal  syllo- 
gistically  :  For  you  shame  your  selves,  when 
you  use  any  continued  speach,  because  your 
stile  is  so  rude  and  barbarous.  Raile  no  more 
in  the  pulpitt  against  good  men,  you  do  more 
hurt  to  your  selves,  and  your  owne  desperat 
cause,  in  one  of  your  rayling  seniions,  then  you 
could  in  speaking  for  reformation.  For  everie 
man  that  hath  any  light  of  religion  in  him  will 
examine  your  groundes,  which  being  found 
ridiculous  (as  they  are)  will  be  decided,  and 
your  cause  made  odious.  Abuse  not  the  high 
commission  as  you  do,  against  the  best  subiects. 
The  commission  it  selfe  was  ordained  for  very 
good  purposes,  but  it  is  most  horriblie  abused 
by  you,  and  turned  cleane  contrarie  to  the 
ende  wherefore  it  was  ordayned.  Helpe  the 
poore  people  to  the  meanes  of  their  salvation, 


140       THE  MARPRELATE  LIBELS 

that  perish  in  their  ignorance  :  make  restitution 
unto  your  tenants,  and  such  as  from  whome 
jou  have  wrongfully  extorted  any  thing : 
Usui-pe  no  longer,  the  authoritie  of  making  of 
ministers  and  excommunication :  Let  poore 
men  be  no  more  molested  in  your  ungodly 
courts  :  Studie  more  then  you  doe,  and  preache 
oftener :  Favor  nonresidents  and  papists  no 
longer:  labor  to  cleanse  y®  ministery  of  the 
swarms  of  ignorant  guides,  wherewith  it  hath 
bin  defiled :  Make  conscience  of  breaking  the 
Sabboth,  by  bowling  and  tabling:  Be  ring- 
leaders of  prophanenes  no  longer  unto  the 
people :  Take  no  more  bribes :  Leave  your 
Symonie :  Favor  learning  more  then  you  doe, 
and  especially  godly  learning:  Stretch  your 
credit  if  you  have  any  to  the  furtherance 
of  the  gospell:  You  have  ioyned  the  pro- 
phanation  of  the  magistracie,  to  the  cor- 
ruption of  the  ministerie :  Leave  this  sinne. 
All  in  a  word,  become  good  christians,  and 
so  you  shall  become  good  subiects,  and 
leave  your  tyrannic.  And  I  would  advise 
you,  let  me  here  no  more  of  your  evill 
dealing. 

Given  at  my  Castle  between  two  Wales, 
neither  foure  dayes  from  penilesse  benche,  nor 
yet  at  the  West  ende  of  Shrofftide  :  but  the 


THE  MARPRELATE  LIBELS       14T 

foureteeuth  yeare  at  the  least,  of  the  age  of 
Charing  crosse,  within  a  yeare  of  Mid- 
sommer,  betweene  twelve  and  twelve  of  the 
clocke. 

Anno  pontificatus  vestri  Quinto,  and  I  hope 
xdtimo  of  all  Englishe  Popes. 

By  your  learned  and  worthie  brother, 

MARTIN  MARPRELATE. 


VI 

THE  ANTI-MARPRELATE  LIBELS 

[Very  short  extracts  will  suffice  to  give  the  reader 
a  notion  as  to  the  kind  of  trouncing  which  Nash 
and  his  friends  found  so  successful  against  the 
Martinist  writers.  The  exact  authorship  is  difficult 
to  fix,  since  on  this  side  also  the  controversy  was 
anonymous.  It  is  however  pretty  certain  that 
Nash  set  the  ball  rolling  with  A  Counter  cuff e^ 
and  wrote  most  of  the  pamphlets  himself,  and  that 
the  others  were  written  by  his  intimate  friends, 
Lyly  among  them.  Gabriel  Harvey,  Nash's  malig- 
nant and  life-long  enemy,  wrote  in  1590  that  Lyly 
was  the  author  of  Pappe  ;  while  Anthony  a  Wood, 
Collins  the  historian,  and  I.  D'Israeli  attribute 
Almond  to  him.  Maskell  ('Marprelate  Contro- 
versy,' 1845),  also,  on  grounds  of  style,  attributes 
this  tract  to  Lyly  ;  and  certainly  it  is  so  superior 
both  in  style  and  in  the  cogency  of  its  argument  to 
the  rest  as  to  suggest  a  different  authorship  to  that 
of  Nash.  At  all  events  Lyly  was  closely  associated 
with  Nash  during  the  controversy,  and  wrote 
either  Pajj'/>e  or  Almond.  'Pasquil' was  a  nam  de 
2>lu7ne  of  Nash  ;  he  tlierefore  wrote  also  The  ReVu^rn 
of  Pasquil^  and  the  last  libel  of  all,  written  in  1590, 
The  First  Part  of  PasquiVs  Apologie. 
Lyly  (1554  M606)  is  best  known,  because  of  his 


THE  ANTI-MARPRELATE  LIBELS     143 

EupJmes,  to  modern  readers  ;  Xasli,  however, 
enjoyed  a  literary  position  little  inferior  to  him, 
and  shares  with  Defoe  the  distinction  of  being  the 
father  of  the  modern  novel.  All  that  he  accom- 
plished was  before  he  was  34,  for  he  died  at  that 
age  in  1601  ;  and  during  the  latter  part  of  his  life 
he  was  much  occupied  by  the  long  controversy 
with  Gabriel  Harvey,  which  was  a  legacy  of  the 
Marprelate  dispute.  For  Plaine  Percevall,  the  last 
retort  on  the  Puritan  side,  was  by  Gabriel's  brother, 
Ptichard  Harvey  the  astrologer  ;  it  was  a  feeble 
attempt  at  compromise,  but  attacked  with  some 
violence  the  former  tracts  of  Nash  and  Lyly, 
especially  Pappe.  The  paper  war  which  followed, 
including  Nash's  Have  with  you  to  Saffron  IValdeii, 
and  Gabriel's  Trimming  of  Thomas  Hash,  was 
continued  with  extraordinary  ferocity,  especially 
on  the  part  of  Harvey. 

One  more  of  the  anti-Martinist  libels  of  1589 
remains  to  be  mentioned,  the  J  font  he's  Minde.  It 
contains  a  dedication  to  'Pasquin,'  i.e.  Pasquil, 
and  is  therefore  probably  not  by  Nash,  but  by 
some  intimate  friend.  In  wit  and  jjoint  it  is  one 
of  the  best  in  the  controversy,  and  contains  a  refer- 
ence to  the  new  '  Golden  Legend '  of  the  Puritans 
which  Nash  often  promised,  but  never  executed ; 
Pasquil  will  have  a  good  subject  in  these  new 
saints,  the  writer  says,  and  proceeds  to  an  enumera- 
tion of  the  seven  deadly  sins,  and  the  cardinal 
virtues  ;  '  But  for  the  three  Theological  Vertues,' 
he  concludes,  '  they  excell,  of  all  that  ever  I  heard 
of : — Faith,  for  I  doubt  me  whether  they  bee  of 
anie.  ^ope  which  is  to  see  the  overthrowe  of  all. 
And  Charitie,  for  they  detest  and  damne  all  but 
themselves.' 

In  the  opinion  of  the  next  generation  it  was  to 
Nash  that  the  discomfiture  of  the  Martinists  was 


144    THE  ANTI-MARPRELATE  LIBELS 

chiefly  due.  Isaac  Walton,  for  instance,  wrote  in 
his  '  Life  of  Hooker '  that  Nash's  merry  wit  had 
'made  some  sjDort  and  such  a  discovery  of  [the 
Martinist's]  absurdities  as — which  is  strange — he 
put  a  greater  stop  to  these  malicious  pamphlets 
than  a  much  wiser  man  had  been  able.'  In  Nash's 
favour  it  must  be  remembered  that  he  was 
only  twenty-two  at  the  time  of  the  Marprelate 
controversy.] 

From 

PAPPE   WITH  AN  HATCHET} 

Alias, 

^  fiU9^  foT"  'i^iy  (jrod  Sonne. 

Or 

Crache  me  this  mit. 

Or 

A  Coimfrie  mfe,  that  is  a  sound  hoxe  of  the 

eare,  for  the  idiot  Martin  to  hold  his  peace, 

seeing  the  patch  will  take  no 

warning. 

Written  hy  one  that  dares  call  a  dog^  a  dog, 

and  made  to  prevent  Martins  dog  daies. 

Imprinted  by  John  Anoke,  and  Joh7i  A  stile,  for  the 

Bay  live  of  Withernam,  cu7n  j^rivilegio  2^erennita- 

tis,  and  are  to  bee  sold  at  the  signe  of  the 

crab  tree  cudgell  in  thwack- 

coate  lane. 

A  sentence. 
Martin  hangs  fit  for  my  mowing. 

^  ^  "k  ^  ^ 

Martin,  wee  are  now  following  after  thee 
with  hue  and  crie,  and  are  hard  at  thy  heeles ; 

1  To  give  pap  with  a  hatchet  was  a  proverbial  expres- 
sion for  doing  a  kind  thing  in  an  unkind  manner. 


THE  ANTI-MARPRELATE  LIBELS     145 

if  thou  turne  backe  to  blade  it,  wee  doubt  not 
but  three  honest  men  shall  bee  able  to  beate 
sixe  theeves.  Weele  teach  thee  to  commit 
sacriledge,  and  to  robbe  the  Church  of  xxiiii. 
Bishops  at  a  blowe.  Doost  thinke  that  wee 
are  not  men  Martin,  and  have  great  men  to 
defend  us  which  wi'ite  ?  Yes,  although  with 
thy  seditious  cloase,  thou  would'st  perswade 
her  Maiestie,  that  most  of  the  Gentlemen  of 
account  and  men  of  honour,  were  by  us 
thought  Puritanes.  No,  it  is  your  poore 
Johns,  ^  that  with  your  painted  consciences 
have  coloured  the  religion  of  divers,  spreading 
through  the  veynes  of  the  Commonwealth 
like  poyson,  the  doggednes  of  your  devotions  ; 
which  entring  in  like  the  smoothnes  of  oyle 
into  the  flesh,  fretteth  in  time  like  quicksilver 
into  the  bones. 

When  children  play  with  their  meate,  tis  a 
signe  their  belhes  are  full,  and  it  must  be 
taken  from  them ;  but  if  they  tread  it  under 
their  feete,  they  ought  to  be  ierkt.  The 
Gospell  hath  made  us  wantons,  wee  dallie 
with  ceremonies,  dispute  of  cu'cumstances,  not 
remembring  that  the  Papists  have  been  making 
roddes  for  us  this  thirtie  yeares  ;  wee  shall  bee 

^  Poor  John  is  a  coarse  kind  of  fish,  and  is  used  here 
by  metonymy  for  a  poor  fellow. 


146     THE  ANTI-MARPRELATE  LIBELS 

swing'd  by  them,  or  worse  by  Martin,  if 
Martins  be  worse.  Never  if  it,  for  they  bee 
worse  with  a  witnesse,  and  let  the  divell  be 
witnesse.  Wee  are  so  nice,  that  the  Cap  is 
a  beame  in  our  Church,  the  booke  of  Common 
Praier  a  milstone,  the  Pater  noster  is  not  well 
pend  by  Christ.  Well,  either  religion  is  but 
policie,  or  policie  scarce  religious. 

If  a  Gentleman  riding  by  the  way  with 
twentie  men,  a  number  of  theeves  should  by 
devise  or  force  binde  all  his  servants;  the 
good  Justice  of  Peace  would  thinke  he  should 
be  robd.  When  Martinists  rancke  robbers  of 
the  Church  shall  binde  the  legges  and  armes 
of  the  Church,  me  thinkes  the  supreme  head 
of  the  Church  should  looke  pale. 

They  that  pull  downe  the  bells  of  a  steeple, 
and  say  it  is  conscience,  will  blow  up  the 
chauncell  to  make  it  the  quintessence  of 
conscience.  Bir  Ladie,  this  is  a  good  settled 
speech,  a  Divine  might  have  seemed  to  have 
said  so  much.  0  sir,  I  am  nor  al  tales,  and 
riddles,  and  rimes,  and  restes,  thats  but  my 
Liripoope,^  if  Martin  knock  the  bone  he  shall 
find  marrow,  and  if  he  looke  for  none,  we'le 

1  That  is,  a  humour  put  on,  an  assumed  character. 
The  liripoope  or  liripipe,  was  the  clerical  tippet,  or  scarf ; 
it  was  also  used  of  a  scarf  in  ordinary  dress. 


THE  ANTI-MARPRELATE  LIBELS     147 

knock  the  bone  on  his  pate,  and  bring  him  on 
his  marie  bones. 


From 

AN  ALMOND  FOR  A  PARRAT,i 

Or 

Cutbert  Curry-knaves 

Almes. 

Fit    for    the    knave    Martin,    and    the 

rest   of  those  imjmdent   Beggers,  that 

can  not  be  content  to  stay  their  stomakes 

with  a  Benefice,  but  they  Avill  needes 

breake  their  fastes  with 

our  Bishops. 

Rimaruni  sum  j^lenus. 

Therefore  beware  (gentle  Reader)  you 

catch  not  the  hicket  ^  with  laughing. 

Imprinted    at    a    Place,    not    farre    from 

Place,  by  the  Assignes  of  Signior  Some-body  and 

are  to  be  sold  at  his  shoppe  in  Trouble-knave 

Street,  at  the  signe  of  the 

Standish. 


To  leave  his  nativitie^  to  the  Chnrch  porch, 
where  the  parish  found  him,  and  come  to  his 

1  '  An  almond  for  a  parrot '  was  a  proverbial  phrase 
for  a  stopper  to  the  mouth,  equivalent  to  'a  sop  to 
Cerberus.'  ^  Hiccup. 

3  What  follows  is  a  personal  attack  on  Penry,  already 
suspected  of  being  Martin  Marprelate. 


148    THE  ANTI-MA RPREL ATE  LIBELS 

riper  yeres,  that  now  had  learnd  PneriJis,  of 
the  poore  mans  boj,  and  nere  as  pretily  entred 
in  Ave  Marie  English,  as  any  parish  clarke  in 
those  parts.  I  am  to  tel  you  how  landibly  he 
behaved  himselfe  in  Peterhouse,  during  the 
time  of  his  subsistership.  First  therfore  he 
began  with  his  religion  at  his  first  comming 
thether,  Hoc  scitote  viri,  that  he  was  as  arrant 
a  papist  as  ever  came  out  of  Wales.  I  tell 
you  /.  a  P^  in  those  daies,  w^ould  have  run  a 
false  gallop  over  his  beades  with  anie  man  in 
England,  and  helpt  the  Priest  for  a  shift  to 
saie  Masse  at  high  midnight,  which  is  need 
were,  I  doubt  not  but  he  would  do  at  this 
houre.  It  was  not  for  nothing  my  masters, 
that  he  so  be-baited  his  betters,  for  shewing^ 
the  people  the  relique  of  our  Ladies  smock  in 
his  sermon,  and  open  detecting  of  all  their 
other  blind  superstition.  Say  what  you  wiU, 
he  is  a  close  lad,  and  can  carrie  a  ring  in  his 
mouth,  though  all  the  world  see  it  not :  what 
though  hee  now  dissemble  with  the  time,  and 
disguise  his  Spanish  heart  in  a  Precisians^ 
habit.  May  not  he  hereafter  prove  a  necessarie 
member  in  conspiracies  common  wealth,  and 
advantage  the  holy  league  as  much  in  this 
meanes  of  sedition,  as  all  Philips  power  by 

1  John  a  Penry.  -  Puritan's. 


THE  ANTI-MARPRELATE  LIBELS     149 

invasion.  Simple  English  men,  that  cannot 
see  into  pollicie  before  it  supprise  your  peace, 
nor  interrupt  the  ambition  of  trechery,  before 
it  hath  besieged  your  prosperitie.  Doe  you 
beholde  whiles  innovations  bud,  and  do  not 
you  feare  lest  your  children  and  family  be 
poisoned  with  the  fruit. 


But  you  fond  men,  as  in  gamients  so  in 
government  continually  affecting  new  fashions, 
thinke  no  man  can  be  saved  y^  hath  not  bin 
at  Geneva.  Your  beleefe  forsooth  must  be  of 
that  Scottish  kinde,  and  your  Bibles  of  the 
primitive  print,  else  your  consciences  God  wot, 
are  not  of  the  cannonical  cut,  nor  your  opinions 
of  the  Apostles  stamp.  Pen  with  Pan,  hath 
contended  with  Appollo,  and  you  lyke  Midasses, 
have  overprised  his  musick.  Good  God,  y^  a 
Welch  harpe  should  inchant  so  many  English 
harts  to  their  confusion,  especially  having  nere 
a  string  belonging  to  it,  but  a  treble.  Had  a 
syren  sung,  and  I  drownd  in  attending  her 
descante.  I  would  have  bequeathed  my  bane 
to  her  beautie,  but  when  Cerberus  shall  barke 
and  I  turne  back  to  listen,  then  let  me  perish 
without  pittie,  in  the  delight  of  my  living 
destmction.     Deceit  hath  tooke  up  his  seat  in 


I50    THE  ANTI-MARPRELATE  LIBELS 

a  dunce,  and  you  tliinke  him  a  saint,  because 
he  comes  not  in  the  shape  of  a  de\'il.  We 
know  M.  Pen.  intus  et  in  cute,  first  for  a  papist, 
then  for  a  BroA\aiist,  next  for  an  Anabaptist, 
and  last  for  y®  blasphemous  Martin,  whose 
spirite  is  the  concrete  compound  of  all  these 
unpardonable  heresies. 


If  the  dogge  Martin  barke  againe,  He  hold 
him  tugge  for  two  or  three  courses,  and  then 
beware  my  blacke  booke  you  were  best,  for  I 
have  not  halfe  emboweld  my  register.  Amend, 
amend,  and  glorie  no  more  in  your  hipocrisie, 
least  your  pride  and  vaine  glory  betray  our 
prosperitie  to  our  enimies,  and  procure  the 
Lords  vengeance  to  dwell  in  the  gates  of  our 
citie.  The  simple  are  abused,  the  ignorant 
deluded,  the  Gods  truth  most  pitifuUy  per- 
verted, and  thou  art  that  most  \^Tetched 
seducer,  that  under  wolves  raiment  devourest 
widowes  houses.  Visions  are  ceast,  and  all 
extraordinarie  revelation  ended,  although  a 
good  fellow  in  Cambridge,  hearing  all  thinges 
might  be  obtained  by  prayer,  prayed  two  dayes 
and  two  nights  for  visions :  wherefore  broach 
no  more  heresies  under  colour  of  inspiration : 
if  thou  doest,  thou  art  like  to  heare  of  me  by 


THE  ANTI-MARPRELATE  LIBELS     151 

the  next  Carrier.     And  so  bon  nute^  to  your 

Noddishippe. 

Yours  to  command  as  your  owne 

for  two  or  three  cudgellings  at  all  times. 

CUTBERT  CURRIKNAVE 

the  younger. 

Martin's  Epitaph. 

(From  '  A  Monthe's  Minde.') 
Hie  jacet,  ut  pinus, 
Nee  Caesar,  nee  Ninus, 
Nee  magnus  Godwinus, 
Nee  Petrus,  nee  Linus, 
Nee  plus  nee  minus 
Quam  elandestinus, 
Miser  ille  Martinus, 
Videte  singuli. 

O  vos  Martinistae, 
Et  vos  Brounistae, 
Et  Famililonistae, 
Et  Anabaptistae, 
Et  omnes  seetistae, 
Et  Maehivelistae, 
Et  Atheistae, 
Quorum  dux  fuit  iste, 
Lugete  singuli. 

^  Good-ni(]rht. 


VII 

ROBERT  PARSONS 

[Robert  Parsons,  or  Persons  (1546  -  1610),  after 
being  a  fellow  of  Balliol  College,  Oxford,  where  he 
had  serious  quarrels  with  the  master,  went  abroad, 
and  joined  the  Church  of  Rome  in  1574,  and  in  the 
following  year  entered  upon  his  noviciate  as  a 
Jesuit.  In  1580  Father  Parsons  was  sent  back  to 
England  disguised  as  a  soldier  in  a  buff  coat :  he 
went  about  the  country,  made  many  important 
converts,  and  set  up  a  secret  printing-press  at  East 
Ham  near  London.  It  was  here  that  the  Brief 
Discours  was  printed  in  the  same  year.  The  press 
was  very  active  for  a  time,  producing  among  other 
books  the  Decern  Eationes  of  Campian  ;  but  in  July 
1581  Campian  was  captured,  and  Parsons  had  to 
escape  to  Normandy.  He  became  a  great  political 
intriguer,  and  continually  pressed  Philip  of  Spain 
to  invade  England,  his  Spanish  policy  being  the 
cause  of  a  split  among  the  English  Roman  Catholics. 
But  he  withstood  all  the  attacks  of  the  secular 
priests,  and  ended  his  days  at  the  English  College 
in  Rome,  of  which  he  had  been  Rector  thirteen 
years.  Parsons  was  an  extraordinarily  able  and 
active  man,  and  the  embodiment  of  all  that  the 
word  Jesuit  is  supposed  to  mean  :  a  born  intriguer, 
with  unusual  diplomatic  gifts  and  opportunities, 
he  was  devoted  to  his  cause  and  blameless  in  private 
life.  His  Booh  of  Ch^stian  Exercise  was  so  famous  as 
to  have  been  edited  (with  '  corruptions '  omitted)  by 


ROBERT  PARSONS  153 

Bunny  an  Anglican,  who  dedicated  it  to  the  Arch- 
bishop of  York  in  1584.  His  Memorial  of  the  Re- 
formation was  also  re-edited  by  an  Anglican,  Gee  a 
chaplain  to  James  II.,  as  a  warning  against  Jesuitry. 
At  the  time  when  Parsons  issued  the  Brief  Dis- 
cours  from  his  Press  at  East  Ham,  the  laws  against 
Papists  were  being  enforced  with  great  severity. 
Proclamations  had  been  made  against  all  who 
harboured  priests,  and  the  country  was  full  of 
spies.  In  December  several  priests  were  captured 
and  tortured,  and  the  prisons  were  filled  with 
Romanist  recusants.  In  January  1581  a  session 
of  Parliament  was  convoked  '  to  find  a  remedy 
for  the  poison  of  the  Jesuits ' ;  and  the  Act  of 
March  18th  made  it  treason  to  be  reconciled  to 
the  Roman  Church,  or  to  be  absolved  by  a  priest, 
while  it  largely  increased  the  fines  for  recusancy. 
There  was  therefore  every  inducement  for  a  Roman- 
ist to  cloak  his  religion  by  outward  conformity ; 
and  a  Roman  secular  priest,  Dr  Alban  Langdale, 
issued  an  anonymous  tract  in  favour  of  the  lawful- 
ness of  going  to  church  as  an  outward  act  of  obedi- 
ence. Thereupon  Parsons  produced  the  Brief 
Discours,  under  the  pseudonym  of  John  Howlet : 
boldly  prefacing  it  with  an  epistle  dedicatory  to 
Queen  Elizabeth.] 

From 
'X  BRIEF  DISCOURS 

contayning  certayne  Reasons  wliy  Catholiques 
refuse  to  goe  to  Church/  1580. 


The  Answer  of  a  Vertuous  and  Lerned 
Man  to  A  Gentleman  in  England,  towching 
the  late  imprisonment  of  Catholiques  ther. 

K 


154  ROBERT  PARSONS 

The  Vew  of  your  late  letters  (my  dere  and 
worshipful  frind)  brought  unto  me  some  sorowe 
and  much  comfort.  The  sorowe  proceeded 
of  the  woful  and  aflicted  case  of  my  pore 
countrie  so  pityfiillye  set  downe  by  youre 
penn  unto  myne  eye,  wherin  (as  you  writ)  so 
many  gi-eate  Gentlemen  of  worshipp  are  im- 
prisoned for  there  conscience  and  relygion  of 
late,  so  many  good  howses  broken  up,  so 
mani  hows  holders  dispersed  and  fled  away, 
so  many  yonge  Gentlemen  and  servantes  un- 
provided,^ so  many  pore  people  destitute,  so 
many  wyves  discoyned  from  there  husbandes, 
so  many  children  berefte  of  ther  parentes, 
suche  fleeinge,  suche  runninge,  such  shuttinge 
up  in  prisons,  such  pitifull  abidinge  hunger, 
thirst,  and  cold  in  prison,  as  you  describe, 
dolefull  for  us  to  heare  heere,  but  more  rufull 
for  you  to  behold  ther,  and  all  this  for  diflerent 
opinions  in  religion,  a  miserie  not  accustomed  to 
fal  in  our  fathers  dayes,  upon  that  noble  realme. 
But  as  these  were  causes  of  some  sorow, 
so  was  it  no  meane  comforte  unto  me,  to 
consider  that  in  these  wicked  and  loosse  times 
of  ours,  wherein  there  is  no  feelinge  or  sence 
of  vertue  leafte,  but  all  men  enwrapped  in 
the  love  of  Godes  professed  enemie  the  w^orld, 

1  A  jnti/uU  description  of  England  at  this  daye. 


ROBERT  PARSONS  155 

followinge  ^vith  all  force,  and  full  sayle,  the 
vanities  and  ambition  of  the  same  :  that  their 
should  be  fownde  in  Ingland  so  many  gentle- 
men both  for  their  yeares,  livinges,  and  other 
habilities,^  as  fit  to  be  as  vayne  as  the  reste, 
yet  so  precyse  in  matters  of  religion,  and  so 
respective  to  their  consciences,  as  that  they 
wi\  prefer  their  soul  before  ther  body,  and  gods 
cause  before  theyr  owne  ease,  na  that  they 
will  rather  venture  both  body  and  goodes,  lyfe, 
landes,  libertye  and  all,  then  they  wil  doe  any 
thinge  contrary  to  theyr  consciences  whereby 
they  must  be  iudged  at  the  last  daye.  This 
is  suche  a  thing,  as  it  must  nedes  bring  com- 
forte  to  all  men,  and  can  iustly  greve  none, 
excepte  the  common  enemy  the  devil  him  selfe. 
For  as  for  strangers,  they  must  needes  be 
edefied  therewith:  as  for  Inglish  men,  they 
must  needes  be  incoraged  therby.  And  as  for 
the  Princes  hir  selfe,  shee  cannot  but  be  com- 
forted therein,  assuringe  hir  selfe  that  yf  these 
men  doe  sticke  so  firmly  unto  theyr  con- 
sciences and  fayth  sworne  unto  God  in  theyr 
othe  of  baptisme  :  then  wil  they  as  firmely 
for  the  same  conscience,  stik  unto  hir  Maiestie, 
if  occasion  should  serve,  in  keepinge  theyre 
secondary  faythe  and  allegeance,  sworne  unto 

1  A  rare  maffer  of  comfort. 


156  ROBERT  PARSONS 

hir  Higlnies  as  to  tlie  substitute  of  God. 
Their  adversaries  also  and  persecutors,  it  can 
not  in  any  reason  niistyke,  for  that  the  con- 
trarye  religion  were  to  have  them  as  constant 
and  faithful  in  that,  if  it  were  possible  to  win 
them  to  the  same. 

But  notwithstanding,  seeing  you  wryte  that 
ther  is  both  great  dislyke,  and  displesure  also 
takes  of  it,  as  though  their  constancie  were 
obstinacie,  and  their  conscience  meere  will : 
(which  most  of  all  greeveth  (as  you  wryte) 
their  obedient  and  well  meaninge  mindes) 
albeit  otherwise  the  pressure  it  self  be  so 
heavie  as  the  burden  therof  is  sore  and 
grievous  to  beare :  for  these  causes,  and  for 
the  geevinge  of  some  more  lyght  to  the  whol 
matter,  I  wil  (as  you  seeme  to  desire)  most 
briefly  towch  three  things  in  this  letter, 
wherby  I  doubt  not  but  that  you  shall  ac- 
compte  your  selfe  fullye  and  sufficientlye 
answered. 


The  Seventh  Reason. 

The  Seventh  Reason,  why  a  Catholick  may 
not  yeld  to  come  the  protestantes  churches  is, 
because  the  service  which  they  use,  is  nought  ^ 
and  dishonerable  to  God,  and  therfore,  no  man 

^  Xoui/hty  servyce. 


ROBERT  PARSONS  157 

can  come  to  it,  or  lieare  it,  or  seme  to  alow  of 
it  by  his  presence,  without  great  offence  to 
God.  Nether  is  it  sufficient  to  sa}^  (as 
commonly  they  use  to  say  to  beguile  simple 
people  withal)  that  it  is  the  Scripture,  taken 
out  of  the  Gospels,  Epistles,  Psalmes,  and  the 
like.  For  by  that  argument,  the  Jewes  service 
were  good  at  this  daye,  which  is  taken  out 
of  the  ould  Testement :  and  al  heretiques  ser- 
vice that  ever  was,  semed  to  be  nothing  but 
Scriptures.^  For,  as  S.  Austen  in  divers 
places  noteth,  it  was  alwayes  y^  fashion  of 
heretiks  to  have  Scripture  in  their  mouthe, 
and  to  cleve  only  to  Scriptures,  and  to  refuse 
traditions  as  inventions  of  men.  And  we 
reade  of  the  arian  heretiques,^  how  they  were 
wont  to  singe  Psalmes  in  the  stretes  of  Con- 
stantinople, therby  to  allure  the  people  to 
them.  And  yet  we  may  not  say,  that  their 
service  was  good :  like  as  we  cannot  say  that 
the  devils  talke  was  good  with  Christ  ^  albeit 
it  were  decked  with  allegation  of  scripture, 
and  other  sweete  words.  Although  therfore 
their  service  be  ful  of  scripture,*  it  is  noe  good 
argument   that   it   is   therfore  infallible   good. 

^  Aug.  to  6.  cont.  Max  li.  I.  initio  and  iter.  vers,  si, 

'^  Al  heretiques  caunte  Scripture. 

^  Math.  iv.  ^  Hier.  in  ca.  408.  Ose. 


158  ROBERT  PARSONS 

For  as  S.  Jerome  sayeth  of  al  Hereticks,  What 
soever  they  speake,  or  fhincke  that  they  doe 
speake  in  the  prayse  of  God,  it  is  the  hoivling 
of  ivoolves,  and  the  hellou'inge  noyse  of  madde 
bullocks :  The  reason  wlierof  is  that,  which  the 
scholler  of  the  Apostles  S.  Ignatius^  sayeth. 
No  man  can  cat  him  good,  or  saye  he  doth 
wel,  that  doth  mingle  evil  with  good.  Wher- 
fore  S.  Augustine  sayeth  of  the  Donatistes, 
schismatickes,  and  Heretickes,  of  his  tyme, 
that  albeit  tliey  did  sounde  out  Alleluia  ^  with 
as  lusty  a  voyce  as  the  Catholickes  did,  and  in 
many  things  else  did  agi'ee  in  Service  with 
them  (more  then  now  the  Protestants  doe  with 
us)  yet  their  service  was  impious,  and  avayled 
them  nothing.^  And  a  litle  after,  upon  the 
Avordes  of  God,  uttered  by  the  Prophete, 
sayinge  In  manye  things  they  were  with  me,* 
&c.  S.  Austin  sayeth  thus.  God  granteth  that 
Heretyckes  in  many  thinges  are  ivith  him,  as 
in  Sacramentes,  Cerimonies,  and  the  lyke:  But 
yet  for  all  that  they  are  not  ivith  me  (saieth 
God)  in  al  thinges.  For  in  that  they  are  in 
schisme,  they  are  not  ivith  me :  in  that  they  are 
in  heresie,  they  are  not  ivith  me  :  amd  tlierfore, 

^  Ignat.  ep.  2.  ^  Aug.  in  ps.  54. 

^  A  little  evil  marreth  a  gret  deal  of  good. 
*  In  psnl.  5-t. 


ROBERT  PARSONS  159 

for  these  feiv  things  in  the  which  they  are  not 
with  me,  thos  other  many  thinges  in  the  which 
they  are  with  me,  shal  profit  them  nothing.  To 
come  nerer  to  our  purpose,  their  owne  Apo.stle, 
and  second  Elias  (as  they  cal  him)  Lutlier,^ 
condemneth  al  their  whole  service,  for  the 
denying  onely  of  the  real  presence,  saying.  The 
Sacramentaries  doe  in  vaine  beleeve  in  God  the 
father,  in  God  the  sonne,  and  in  the  holye 
Ghost,^  and  in  Christ  our  Savyour :  al  this 
doth  avayle  them  nothinge,  seeynge  they  doe 
denye  this  one  Article,  as  false,  of  the  real  I 
presence.  Where  as  Christe  doth  saye.  This  is 
my  body.  Loe  heere  this  Prophet  Avith  the 
same  spirite  wherewith  he  condemneth  the 
Popes,  he  condemneth  the  Protestants,  why 
should  we  beleeve  him  more  in  the  one,  then 
in  the  other  ? 

But  now  to  shew  wherein  the  Protestants 
service^  is  evil,  it  were  sufficient  to  say,  that 
it  is  devised  of  them  selves,  and  altogether 
different  from  al  the  service  of  Christendome 
besids:  and  therefore  not  to  be  receaved 
by  Catholickes,  with  whom  they  deale  too 
chyldishelye,    when    they    say,    their    service 


^  Luthers  opinion  of  our  Prottstanttts  service. 

2  Cop.  dial.  6.  ca.  15. 

^   Where  in  the  Protefitants  service  is  evlly  in  particnier. 


i6o  ROBERT  PARSONS 

difFereth  in  nothing  from  the  ouhl  Catholicke 
service,  but  onelye  because  it  is  in  English :  ^ 
therby  thinckinge  to  make  the  simple  people, 
to  have  the  lesse  scruple  to  come  to  it.  The 
which  how  false  it  is,  it  shal  appeare  by  that 
which  I  wil  saye  hereafter.  I  myghte  also 
bringe  the  opinion  of  all  the  hotter  sorte  of 
Protestantes,  called  the  Puritayns,  who  in 
wrytinge,  sermons,  and  private  speache,  doe 
utterlye  condemne,'^  the  service  whiche  nowe 
Protestantes  have,  and  thereupon  doe  refrayne 
from  it,  as  much  as  Catholicks,  But  I  wil  geve 
more  particuler  reasons,  as  foloweth. 

First  the  scripture  is  read  there  in  false  and 
shameles  translations,^  contayning  manifest  and 
wilful  corruptions,  to  drawe  it  to  their  owne 
purposes,  as  hath  bene  shewed  in  particuler, 
by  manye  learned  men  in  their  worckes:  and 
is  lyke  to  be  (shortly)  more  playnlye  by  the 
grace  of  God.  x4s  for  example,  throughe  out 
the  scripture,  Avhere  Idoles  are  forbidden,  they 
translate  it  Images,  as  in  Sainte  John  they 
reade.  Children  heepe  your  selves  from 
Images} 

Whereas   the  scripture  sayeth  Idoles,    And 

^  Devysed  hy  them  selves  different  from  y^  rest. 

-  Condemned  l>y  y*"  Puritains. 

^  Fatse  translation's  of  scripture.  ^  1  Joh.  v. 


ROBERT  PARSONS  i6l 

this  is,  to  make  simple  men  beleeve,  tliat 
Moles  and  Images  are  al  one,  which  is  absurde. 
For  then,  where  Moyses  sayethe  :  That  God 
made  man  accordinge  to  his  owne  Image. ^ 
We  should  consequently  say:  God  made  man 
accordinge  to  hys  owne  Idole.  Againe,  where 
in  contrarie  maner  S.  Paule  sayeth.  That  a 
covetous  man  maketh  his  mony  his  Idole.^  We 
shoulde  saye,  that  he  maketh  it,  his  Image. 
The  which  howe  foolishe  it  is,  everye  man 
seethe,  and  it  can  not  stande  with  anye  sence 
of  the  Scripture.  The  like  absurde  transla- 
tions they  have,  in  infinite  other  thinges, 
which  I  cannot  stande  to  rehearse.  Let  some 
man  reade  the  latter  ende  of  the  xv.  chapter 
of  the  second  booke  of  the  Machabies,^  where 
he  shal  see  what  labour  their  Inglishe  trans- 
latour  taketli  to  shifte  over  the  woordes  of  the 
Scripture,  which  talk  of  oblations  and  prayers 
for  the  dead  :  and  by  that  one  place,  let  everye 
man  iudge  of  his  fidelitie  in  the  reste.^  For 
I  am  sure,  that  if  a  Boye  should  soe  corrupte 
TuUies  epistles,  in  translatinge  them  in  a 
Grammer  Scoole,  he  should  be  breeched  for 
his  labour.  The  Scripture  therefore,  being  read 
there,  in  false   translations,  it    muste   needes 

1  Gen.  i.  3.  "^  Ephe.  v.  ^  2  Macha.  12. 

*  See  the  Englishe  Byhle  dedycated  to  Kynge  Henry. 


1 62  ROBERT  PARSONS 

seeme  to  be  false,  which  is  blasphemie  a^inst 
the  holy  Ghost  the  indyter  of  them.  Soe  that  by 
this,  it  appeareth,  that,  that  part  of  their  service 
which  they  pretende  to  be  Scripture,  is  no 
Scripture,  because  it  is  by  the  malice  of  the  in- 
terpretour  false,  the  whiclie  Scripture  can  not  be. 
Secondly,  the  service  that  Christians  ought 
only  to  goe  to,  should  be  sayd,  as  also  the 
Sacramentes  administred,  by  Priestes  ^  and  such 
as  have  receyved  the  Sacrament  of  holy  orders, 
as  al  the  general  Councels  and  Fathers  of  the 
Churche,  shewe  unto  us.^  And  S.  Paule  when 
he  saythe.  That  no  man  may  take  unto  him 
this  honour,  but  he  that  is  called  as  Aaron 
was.  Wherfore  the  same  Paul  adviseth  the 
Bishope  Timothie,  not  to  geve  this  dignytie 
unto  any  man  but  upon  grete  consideration, 
saying.  Doe  not  laye  thy  liandes  rashlye  uppon 
any  man.  But  nowe  that  ether  all,  or  the 
moste  parte  of  mynisters  of  Englande,^  be 
meere  laye  men,  and  noe  priestes,*  and  conse- 
quentlye  have  noe  authoritie  in  these  thinges, 
it  is  evidente  for  manye  causes :  ^   as  wel  for 

^  Sayd  by  lay  men. 

"^  Ig.  ad  Hier  Chri.  li.  3  and  6  de  Sacer.  and  horn.  60 
Hier.  ep.  ad  Helio.  andep.  SoadEua.  Ambro.  in  Ephes.  4. 

3  HeK  V. 

*  1  Tim.  V.  I.  e.  not  ordained  aceording  to  the  medieval 
rite. 

'  Con.  4.  Car.  can.  6  and  Goncil.  Laod.  can.  24.  Igna.  ep. 
ad  Anti.  Arco.  ca.  3. 


ROBERT  PARSONS  163 

tliat  they  have  not  reeeaved  the  under  Orders, 
which  they  should  have  done  before  Priest- 
lioode,  (as  appeareth  by  the  auncyent  Councel 
of  Carthage,  wherein  Saint  Augustine  was 
himselfe)  and  by  al  the  Fathers  bothe  before 
and  since:  as  allso  because  tliey  are  not  or- 
dayned  by  such  a  Bishoppe  and  Preist,  as 
tlie  Catholicke  Church  hath  put  in  in  that 
aucthoritye :  ^  which  admitteth  noe  man  for 
Bishoppe,  which  is  not  ordeyned  by  imposition 
of  three  or  two  CathoKcke  Bishoppes  handes 
at  the  least.  Of  al  which  thinges  none  are  to 
be  founde  amongest  the  Protestantes. 

Thyrdlye,  their  service  is  nought,  because 
they  have  divers  false,  and  blasphemous  thinges 
therein  :  ^  and  that  which  is  yet  worse,  they  soe 
place  those  things,  as  they  may  seeme  to  the 
simple,  to  be  verye  Scrypture.  As  for  example, 
In  the  end  of  a  certayne  Geneva  Psalme.^ 
They  praye  to  God  to  keepe  them,  from  Pope, 
Turcke,  and  Papistrye,  which  is  blasphemous,* 
First,  for  ioyninge  the  supreme  minister  and 
substytute    of   Christ,  with   the   knowen  and 

1  Can.  Aj).  1  a7id  2  and  68. 

'^  Falsehoode  and  blasphemie  in  ther  service. 

^  This  is  a  rather  crooked  argument  of  Parsons  ;  as  the 
*  Geneva  Psalme '  had  nothing  to  do  with  the  Chiirch  of 
England,  while  the  petition  against  the  Pope  in  the  Litany 
had  been  struck  out  as  early  as  1559. 

•*  In  the  ende  of  their  Geneva  Pi>oIter. 


164  ROBERT  PARSONS 

professed  enemye  of  Cliriste,  and  speaking  soe 
contiimelyouslye  of  him,  of  whom  al  antiquitye 
in  Christ  his  Church,  hath  thought,  and  spoken 
so  reverently,  callinge  him.^  The  hygh  Preist 
of  the  Church.  The  Blshoppe  of  the  Universal 
Church.  The  Pastor  of  the  Church.  The  iudg 
of  matters  of  faith.  The  repurger  of  heresies. 
TJie  examiner  of  all  hishopps  causes.  And 
fincdlye  the  great  Preist,  in  obeying  ivhom  all 
Unity  e  consisteth,  and  hy  disobey  in  ge  of  ivhomy 
all  Heresies  and  Schismes  aryse. 

Secondlye,  it  is  blasphemous,  for  that  they 
praye  to  be  delyvered  from  Papistrye  :  mean- 
inge  thereby,  the  Catholique  and  onelye  trewe 
religion,  by  the  which  all  men  are  to  be  saved. 
Thirdlye,  because  they  singe  it,  and  make  other 
simple  men  to  singe  it,  in  the  beginning  of 
sermons,  and  otherwise  :  as  though  it  were 
scripture  it  selfe,  and  one  of  Davids  psalmes. 

Fourthyle,  albeit  the  Protestantes  service 
had  not  al  this  evil  in  it,-  as  it  hath  :  yet  were 
it  nought,  because  it  hath  not  in  it,  those  good 
things  which  Christian  service  shoidd  have. 
For  service  maye  be  evil,  as  wel  for  having  too 

^  Cyp.  de  sim.  pre.  and  Chr.  li.  2.  de  Sa.  Cyp.  ep.  46. 
Chr.  li.  2.  de  sa  Inno.  ep.  93.  ap.  Au.  and  Leo.  ep.  84. 
Sy  Alex.  4  apud  Atha.  Theod.  li.  2  hist.  ca.  4  Cy.  ep.  55. 

2  Lacke  0/ necessary e  f hinges  which  it  should  hare  in  it. 


ROBERT  PARSONS  165 

Jitle,  as  for  having  to  much.  As  the  service 
of  the  Arrians  was,  for  singing,  Glorie  to  the 
Father,  and  not  singinge  the  same  to  the 
Sonne :  And  as  if  a  man  shoulde  recyte  his 
Creede,  and  leave  out  one  article  (as  in  effecte 
the  Protestantes  doe  the  article  of  discention 
into  hel)  al  the  whole  Creede  were  nought 
thereby.  Nowe,  how  many  thinges  doe  want 
in  the  Protestantes  service,  which  should  be 
in  Christian  service,  it  were  to  longe  in  every 
poynte  to  rehearse  :  yet  wil  I  (for  examples 
sake)  name  two  or  three  thinges.  First  there- 
fore, they  have  lefte  out  the  cheefest,  and 
heyghest  thinges  of  al :  which  is  the  blessed 
Sacrifice  of  Christ  his  Bodye  and  Blond 
appoynted  by  Christ,^  to  be  offered  up  every e 
day  for  thankes  gevinge  to  God,  for  obtayninge 
of  grace,  and  avoiding  of  al  evil,  and  for  the 
remission  of  sinnes  both  of  quicke  and  dead  : 
as  with  one  consent  the  Fathers  of  the 
Primative  Church  doe  affirme.  The  which 
Sacrifice  being  away,  noe  Christian  service  can 
be  sayed  to  be  there  :  For  so  much  as,  for 
this  cause  were  ordayned  preists,  nether  can 
there  any  be  called  Preist  but  in  respecte  of 

'  Dion.  Ariop.  hier  ca.  3  Ign.  cp.  ad  Smyrn.  Justin, 
dial,  tri  'pho.  Ter.  li  de  orat.  Au.  li.  20.  contr.  Faust,  ca. 
23  Chry.  horn.  17.  ad  Hch.  Gre.  li.  4.  di.  ca.  57. 


i66  ROBERT  PARSONS 

this  Sacrifice  :  ^  Also  in  respect  of  tliis  sacrifice 
were  Christian  Churches  called  temples,  for 
this  Sacrifice  were  made  Aulters :  for  an 
Aulter  is  the  place  of  Sacrifice,  even  as  an 
armorye  is  the  place  where  armour  is.  For 
this  Sacrifice  was  Preistes  apparel  I  made : 
Vestments,  Sensors,  Frankensence,  and  the 
lyke,  in  the  Prymatyve  Church.  Whereof  all 
the  Fathers,  Councells,  and  historyes  doe 
speake  so  muche. 

The  second  thinge,  which  the  Protestants 
service  leaveth  out,"^  is  noe  lesse  then  six,^  of 
the  seven  Sacramentes,  which  the  Catholique 
service  of  God  doth  use :  (for  as  for  their 
communion  it  can  be  no  Sacrament  as  they  doe 
use  it.)  The  commoditie  of  which  Sacraments, 
in  the  Churche  saint  Augustine  saythe.*  That 
it  is  greater^  then  can  be  expressed,  and  ther- 
fore  the  contempte  of  them  is  nolesse  then 
sacriledge,  because  {say the  he)  that,  can  not  be 

1  Hiero.  e.p.  1.  ad.  Helio.  Chry.  li.  2.  de  Sacerd.  Cyp. 
ep.  54.  and  li.  1.  ep.  2.  Au.  ser.  25  2.  de  tempo.  Optat. 
li.  6.  cont.  Dona.  Au.  in  psa.  113.  eonci.  2  and  Posid.  in  vita 
Au.  ca.  24. 

-  Condi,  flor  and  constat  seaio.  15. 

2  Six  Sacraments.  At  the  time  when  Parsons  wrote. 
1580,  it  was  probabl}-  true  that  Penance  and  Extreme 
Unction  were  in  abeyance,  but,  besides  Baptism  and  the 
Communion,  Confirmation,  Matrimony  and  Holy  Orders 
were  of  course  administered. 

^  Aug.  11.  19.  cont.  faust.  cap.  11  and  16. 


ROBERT  PARSONS  167 

contemned  without  impietie,  tuithoiit  the  helpe 
of  tvhichy  no  man  can  have  pietie.  And  for 
this  cause  in  an  other  place  he  saith.^  That 
the  contemnours  of  visible  Sacraments,  can  by 
no  menes,  invisiblye  be  sanctified.  The  thirde 
thing  that  the  Protestants  service  leaveth  out, 
is,  all  the  ceremonies  ^  of  the  Catholique 
Churche,  of  the  which  the  ould  auncient  Fathers 
and  Councels  doe  saye  these  three  things.^ 
First,  that  they  are  to  be  had  in  greate 
reverence,  and  to  be  contemned  of  no  man. 
Secondlye,  that  they  are  to  be  learned  by 
tradition,  and  that  manye  of  them  are  receaved 
by  the  tradition  of  the  Apostles.  Lastlye,  that 
they  whiche  doe  ether  condemne,  despise,  or 
wilfullye  omyt  these  cerimonies,  are  excomuni- 
cated.  I  myghte  here  adde  manye  other 
thinges,  as  leavinge  out  prayers  for  the  dead, 
being  (as  the  Fathers  holde)  one  of  the  cheefest 
functions  of  a  Priest.  Also  for  having  their 
service  in  an  other  order  and  language  than  y® 
univarsal  church  useth :  But  this  is  sufficient. 

^  Av^.  su  levit.  que  84.  -  Ceremonies. 

3  Tertulia.  de  corona.  Bas.  li.  de  ep.  5.  cap.  27.  Epipha. 
heresi  71.  Condi  trid  ca.  7.  and  13.  Gip.  cp.  66.  Chri,  ho. 
41.  vide  Aug.  li  2.  Doct  crist.  Cyp.  ser.  de  era,  dam.  Isodo. 
li.  de.  div.  off.  Concil.  Tol.  4.  cap.  2.  Bed.  It.  hist,  capit. 
1.  In  whiche  authors  you  shal  see  in  what  tonge  service 
was  in  their  dayes  in  all  countries. 


1 68  ROBERT  PARSONS 

For  if  they  leave  out  of  their  service,  both 
Sacrifice,  Sacraments,  and  all  ecclesiasticall 
ceremonies :  I  know  not  what  good  thing 
they  have  leffce,  besides  a  fewe  bare  woordes  of 
Scripture,  evil  translated,  and  woorse  applyed, 
which  they  reade  there.  Seinge  therfore  their 
service  is  such,  it  is  a  sufficient  cause  to  make 
al  Catholiques  to  avoyde  it. 

The  Eyght  Reason. 

The  Eyght  Reason  of  refusal  which  maye 
now  be  yielded,  why  a  Catholyque  maye  not 
come  to  the  Protestantes  Churches,^  is,  because 
by  going  thither,  he  shal  lose  al  the  benefit  of 
his  owne  religion,  nether  shal  he  take  any 
more  commoditye  thereby,  then  if  he  were  not 
of  that  religion  at  al.  This  is  a  very  greate, 
wayghtie,  and  most  sufficient  reason  to  be 
yelded  by  Catholiques  in  Englande  to  their 
Princes  for  their  refusal  of  connninge  to 
Churche,  and  such  a  one  as  beinge  sufficiently 
conceyved  by  her  Maiestie,  cannot  but  satysfie 
her  Highnes,  and  greatlye  drawe  her  to  com- 
passion of  the  pyttifuU  case-  of  soe  manye 
thousands  of  her  lo\inge  subiectes,  whoe 
beinge,  as  I  have  sayde  Catholiques  in  hartes 

^  Loosing  the  benefit  of  Catkolique  religion. 
2  A  pity/ul  necessitie. 


ROBERT     PARSONS  169 

by  goinge  to  Protestantes  Churches,  must 
needes  bee  brought  ether  to  flat  athisme,  that 
is,  to  leave  of  all  conscience,  and  to  care  for 
no  relygion  at  all,  (as  manye  thousand  seeme 
to  be  resolved  to  doe :)  or  els,  to  lyve  in 
contynuall  torment  of  mynde,  and  almoste 
desperation,  considering  that  by  their  goinge 
to  these  Churches,  they  lose  utterlye  all  use 
and  practise  of  theyr  owne  relygion,  being 
helde  as  schismatiques,  and  excomunicate 
persons  of  the  same:  and  their  case  such, 
that  if  they  shoulde  dye  in  the  same  state, 
they  were  sure  to  receave  no  parte  of  benefit 
of  that  relygion  no  more  then  if  they  had  bene 
protestantes.  The  which,  what  a  danger  it  is, 
all  true  Christian  men  doe  both  knowe,  and 
feare. 

But  yet,  that  the  simpler  sorte,  niaye  better 
understande  it,  and  the  wyser,  better  consider 
of  it :  I  wil  in  particuler  repeate  some  of  the 
abovesayde  donnnages. 

First  therfore  a  Catholique,  by  going  to  the 
Protestants  Churches,  looseth  all  participation 
of  that  blessed  Sacrifice,^  of  the  bodye  and 
blood  of  oure  Saviour,  appoynted  by  the  sayde 
Saviour  (as  I  have  shewed  before)  to  be  offered 

^  The  losse  of  party cipation  of  the  Sacrifice  how  great  a 
losse. 


I70  ROBERT  PARSONS 

up  daylje  in  the  oblation  of  the  Masse,  for  the 
comraodite  of  the  whole  worlde,  quick  and 
dead :  and  for  that  cause  (as  the  godlje 
and  learned,  saynt  John  Chrisostome  sayth.^) 
Called  the  common  Sacrifice  of  the  ivhole 
n'orld.  The  which  action  of  offering  of  this 
sacred  Hoste,  (the  Sonne  of  God  to  his  Father,) 
is  of  such  dignitye,  excellencie,  and  merit,  not 
only  to  the  Priest,  but  also  to  the  standers  by 
assisting  him :  as  all  the  other  good  woorkes 
which  a  man  can  doe  in  his  lyfe,  are  not  to  be 
compared  with  it,  seeing  that  the  verye  Angels  '^ 
of  heaven  doe  come  downe  at  that  tyme,  to 
adore  (after  the  consecration)  that  sacred  Bodye, 
and  to  offer  the  same  up  with  us,  to  God  the 
father  for  the  whole  world.  As  al  the  holy 
Fathers  of  the  primative  Churche  dyd  bothe 
beleve  and  teach.^  Of  the  which,  it  shalbe 
enough  at  this  t}ane,  to  aledge  one  or  two. 
Saynt  Gregorie  therfore  the  first,  say  the  thus. 
Wliat  faythfull  man  can  doute  hut  that  in  the 
verye  houre  of  immolation  or  sacryficCj  the 
heavens  doe  open  at  the  Priestes  voyce,  and  that 
the  quires  of  Angels j  he  present  there,  in  that 
misterie  of  Jesus  Christ  ?  *     And  saynt  Chrisos- 

•■  Chrys.  horn.  47.  in  ep.  1.  ad  cor. 
^  The  Angels  prsiient  at  the  elevation. 
^  Gre.  li.  4.  di  al.  cap.  58. 
^  Chris,  lib.  6.  de  sacerdo. 


ROBERT  PARSONS  171 

tome,  handeling  the  same,  saythe.  At  that 
tyme,  (the  tyme  of  consecration  in  the  Masse) 
the  Angels  stande  by  the  Priest,  and  the  uni- 
versall  orders  of  the  celestiall  power's,  doe  crye 
out,  and  the  place  nygh  to  the  aulter,  is  full  of 
quires  of  Angels  in  the  honour  of  him  whoe 
js  there  sacrifised.  And  immediatlye  after,  he 
telleth  two  visions  of  holye  men,^  whose  eyes 
were  by  the  power  of  God  (as  he  sayeth) 
opened,  and  they  in  those  visions  sawe  the 
Angels  presente  at  the  time  of  consecration. 
And  in  an  other  place,  he  yet  more  at  large 
erplycateth  the  same,  sayinge.^  At  that  tyme 
deere  brother  (at  the  time  of  consecration  and 
elevation)  not  onlye  men  do  geve  out  that  dread- 
ful cry,  (saying,  we  adore  the  0  Lord)  etc.  but 
also  the  Angels  doe  bowe  their  knees  to  our 
Lord,  and  the  Archangels  doe  beseche  him :  for 
they  accounte  that  a  fitt  time,^  having  that 
saxyred  oblation  in  their  favour.  And  therfor 
as  men  are  wont  to  move  Princes  the  more,  yf 
they  beare  olive  bowes  in  their  handes :  {because 
by  bearinge  that  kinde  of  wood  they  bring  into 
the  Princes  mindes  mercye  and  gentlenes:)  so, 
the  Angels  at  that  time,  {houlding  out  in  their 

^  Two  visions  of  the  presence  of  Angels  at  the  masse. 

2  Chry.  ho.  3.  cont.  Ana. 

^Aft  Similitude  of  S.  Chrisostome. 


172  ROBERT  PARSONS 

hands,  the  veri/e  self  same  hoclye  of  our  Lord)  ^ 
they  doe  entreate  for  al  mankinde,  as  thoiighe 
they  saide,  We  do  entreate  0  Lord,  for  the 
men  of  the  ivorlde,  whom  thow  hast  so  looved, 
that  for  their  salvation  thou  wast  content  to 
dye,  and  in  the  Crosse,  to  breathe  out  thyne 
owne  soide.  For  these  men  tve  mahe  supplica- 
tion, for  the  which  thou  hast  geeven  thy  owne 
hloud :  for  these  men  tve  pray,  for  the  ivhich 
thou  hast  sacrificed  this  hodye  of  thyne.  If  this 
be  soe,  then  the  hearinge  of  Masse,  is  not  onelye 
worth  the  ventuiynge  of  an  hundred  Marckes,^ 
or  five  monethes  imprisonment,  but  also  of  an 
hundi'ede  thousande  lyves,  if  a  man  could  loose 
everye  one  for  that  cause  sixe  tymes.  And  an 
hundred  tymes  miserable  is  that  man,  which  for 
anye  worldlye  respecte  doth  depryve  him  selfe 
of  soe  greate  a  benifite,  as  the  participation 
of  this  sacrifice  is.  Secondlye,  they  loose  by 
goeynge  to  Church,  the  fruite  and  grace  of  sixe 
Sacramentes  :  ^  as  the  grace  of  Confirmation  by 
the  Bishoppe,  whereby  the  Holye  Ghoste  was 
geeven  in  the  Prymatyve  Church,  (as  Saynte 
Luke  sayeth)  *  and  now  in  our  tyme,  as  Saynte 

^  What  play  Iter  testimony  can  there  he  then  this. 
-  The  hearinge  of  a  Masse  how  well  worthe  a  hundred 
marJces. 
^  The  losse  ofy'^  grace  ofQ.  Sacraments  what  a  losse. 
-*  Act  8  and  19. 


ROBERT  PARSONS  173 

Cypryan  provetli,  are  bestowed  iippon  us  by 
the  same,  the  seven  gyftes  of  the  holye  Ghoste» 
Set  out  by  Esaye  the  Prophet  in  his  eleventhe 
chapter.^  They  loose  also  the  grace  of  Priest- 
hood, soe  greatlye  commended  by  S.  Paul  to 
Tymothye,^  when  he  chargeth  him  soe  earnestlye, 
not  to  neglect  the  sayd  grace.  Also  the  grace 
of  Matrimony,  which  S.  Paul  soe  much  extol- 
leth,^  when  he  calleth  this  sacrament,  a  great 
sacrament.  Also  the  grace  of  extreme  Unction, 
which  is  soe  great,  as  S.  James  sayeth,*  besids 
the  healing  many  times  of  the  bodye,  it  also 
remitteth  the  sicke  mans  sinnes :  And  so  in 
lyke  manner  the  grace  of  the  other  two  sacra- 
ments, of  Penance,  and  the  Aulter,  whereof  I 
wil  say  a  word  or  two  immediately.  Al  thes 
graces  they  loose,  being  cut  of  (by  their  going 
to  the  Protestants  churches)  from  these  sacra- 
ments, which  are  nothing  else,  but  conduits  of 
grace.  The  w^iich  losse,  of  what  valew  it  is,^ 
a  man  may  gesse  by  that,  which  al  de vines 
wdth  on  accord  doe  prove,  y^  on  di'oppe  of 
grace  is  more  worth,  then  al  y®  world  esteemed 
in  it  selfe  besids.  Thirdly,  they  loose  by  going 
to   church   al   the  benifit  of  y^    keies   of  the 

^  Cypr.  li.  de.  vnct.  chrU.  Em.  11. 

2  2  Timo,  i.  3  Ephes.  v. 

**  Jo  CO.  o.  *^  The  valew  of  grace. 


174  ROBERT  PARSONS 

churcli,^  or  of  the  aiictority  of  binding  and 
loosing  of  sinns,  graunted  by  Christ  to  y^  gover- 
noiirs  of  the  same  Church.  For  the  explication 
of  the  which,  we  must  understand,  that  Christ 
havhig  newlye  made  the  mariage  betweert  his 
deere  spouse  and  him  selfe,  (I  meane  the 
Church):  and  havinge  now  sealed  the  same, 
with  his  owne  blond :  and  being  inforced  to 
depart  from  the  said  new  maried  spouse  of  his, 
towching  his  visible  presence  for  a  time :  he 
devised  how  to  shew  unto  her,  how  greatly  he 
loved  her,  and  to  leave  some  notable  pledge 
and  testimony  of  his  singuler  great  affection  to- 
wardes  her.  The  which  he  finally  resolved,  could 
be  by  noe  other  meanes  better  expressed,  then  if 
he  should  leave  al  his  aucthoritie  with  her,  the 
which  he  had  receaved  of  his  Father,  which 
making  publyque  proclamation  to  all  the  world, 
that  }Vh.at  so  ever  she  should  forgeve  in  earthe, 
towchyng  sinne,  the  same  should  heforgeven  in 
heaven:"^  and  what  soever  sinne,  the  Churche 
should  retaine  or  not  forgeve  in  earth  the  same 
should  never  be  forgeven  in  heaven.^  And 
againe :  that  with  what  authority e  God  his 
Father  sent  him,  tvith  the  same  he   sent   her 

^  What  the  henefyte  of  the  heyes  of  the  Church  is. 

2  Joan.  20. 

^  A  lyrodamatlon  of  the  tribunal  for  sinn  in  earth. 


ROBERT  PARSONS  175 

gouvernours,  the  Apostles,  and  theyr  successors.^ 
And  againe :  he  that  should  not  here  and  obey 
the  Churchy  should  be  accounted  as  a  heathen, 
and  publicane.^  By  the  which  speeches  of 
Christ,^  our  fore  fathers  have  alwayes  under- 
stoode,  that  Christe  gave  unto  the  Churche  a 
visible  tribunal  seate  in  earth,  for  the  forgeving 
or  retayning  of  sinnes,  unto  the  which  al  Chris- 
tians must  resorte  by  submission  and  humble 
confession  of  their  sinnes,*  if  they  thinke  ever 
to  receave  forgevenes  of  the  same  at  Christes 
liys  handes  in  heaven.  For  soe  we  read,  that 
in  the  primative  Churche  they  confessed  their 
sinnes  unto  the  Apostels  :  of  whom  saynt  Luke 
wiiteth  thus.  Manye  of  the  faythful  came  (to 
the  Apostles)  confessing  and,  reveling  their  owne 
actes.^  And  three  hundred  yeres  after  that,  S. 
Austen  testefieth  of  his  time,  saying.  Doe  you 
suche  penance,  as  is  wont  to  be  done  in  the 
Church,  that  the  Church  may  praye  for  you.^ 
Let  no  man  saye,  I  doe  it  secretly,  I  doe  it  with 
God  alone,  God  ivhich  hath  to  pardon  me, 
knoweth  wel  how  that  I  doe  repent  in  my  hart, 

^  Joan.  6.  -  Mat.  18. 

^  Aug.  ho.  49  <:r.  50.  and  ho  41.  ibid.  Cip.  li.  1.  ep.  2. 
■*  Amb.  lib.  1.  ca.  2.  de  Pae.  aiid  in  psa.  38.  Atha.  ser^n. 
cant.  her.  Chri^.  lib.  3  de  facer.  JUL  in.  ca.  18.  Mat. 
^  JJie.  in  cap  18  Mat.     Actor.  19. 
«  Aug.  horn.  41.  49.  50.  cap  10.  11.  16.  bx  50.  Jww. 


176  ROBERT  PARSONS 

What  therfoie,  ivith  out  cause  was  it  sayde  (ta 
the  Priestes)  that  ivhich  you  loose  in  earth,  shal 
he  loosed  in  heaven:^  thei^fore  in  vayne  ivere  the 
leyes  geven  to  the  Church  ?  And  in  an  other 
place  againe  more  neerlje  touching  the  humour 
of  our  men  now  a  dayes,  he  sayth.^  There  are 
some  which  thinke  it  sufficient  for  their  salva- 
tion, if  they  doe  confesse  their  sinnes  only  to 
God,  to  whom  nothing  is  hidden,  and  to  whom 
no  mans  conscience  is  unknown.  For  they  will 
not,  or  els  they  are  ashamed,  or  els  they  dis- 
dayne,  to  shew  them  selves  unto  the  Priestes, 
whom  not  ivithstanding  God  (by  Moyses  his 
laivegever)  did  apoint  to  discerne  or  iudge  be- 
tweene  leprye,  and  leprye.^  But  I  ivoidd  not 
that  thou  shouldest  be  deceaved,  with  that 
opinion,  in  such  sort,  that  thou  shoiddest  ether 
by  noughty  shame,  or  obstinate  disdayne,  re- 
fray  n  to  confesse,^  before  the  substitute,  or 
Vicegerent  of  our  Lord,  For,  ivhom  our  Lord 
did  not  disdayne  to  make  his  substitute,  his 
iudgemente  must  thou  be  contente  also  to  stande 
to.  This  benifit  therefore  of  the  keyes  of  the 
Church,  and  of  receaving  remission  of  their 
sinnes  by  the  same,  (which  Cathohckes  doe 
thin  eke  to  be  the  greatest  benifit  of  their  re- 

^  Joan.  20.  ^  Aug.  H.  2.  de  Visita.  wjir.  Gap.  4. 

^  Len.  13.  14.  ^  The  necessity  of  Confession. 


ROBERT  PARSONS  177 

ligion)  do  they  loose,  that  goe  to  the  Protestants 
Churches,  besitls  al  the  good  instructions,  whole- 
some councels,  and  vertuous  admonitions,  which 
Catholickes  doe  receave  in  confession,  at  their 
ghostly  fathers  hands,  then  the  which  things, 
they  finde  nothinge  more  forcible  to  bring  them 
to  good  lyfe :  especially,  if  they  frequente  it 
often,  as  al  zelous  Catholickes  in  the  worlde 
nowe  doe. 

Fourthlye,  they  loose  the  infinite  benefite  of 
receving  the  blessed  sacrament  ^  of  the  aulter, 
(the  pretious  Body  and  Bloud  of  Christ)  being 
the  foode  of  our  soules,  and  as  Christ  sayeth. 
The  bread  that  came  doivnefrom  heven  to  geve 
lyfe  unto  the  world :  ^  To  the  worthye  eating  of 
which  heavenly  bread,  Christ  promiseth  infinite 
reward,  saying.^  He  that  eateth  my  flesh  and 
drinketh  my  bloud,  hath  lyfe  everlasting,  and 
I  wil  rayse  him  againe  at  the  last  day.  And 
agayne  :  *  He  that  eateth  me,  shal  lyve  through 
me.  Upon  which  promises  of  Christ,  our  for- 
fathers  of  the  Primative  church,  have  alwayes 
most  earnestlye  exhorted  al  men,  to  the  often 
receavinge  of  this  blessed  sacrament,  alleaging 

^  The  losse  of  not  receaving  the  blessed  Sacrament. 

-  Joan.  6.  ^  Ibidem. 

"*  Vide  Ciril.  lib.  3.  in  Joan.  cap.  37.  Busil.  ad.  Cesar, 
patric.  Amb.  lib.  5.  de  Sacra,  ca.  4.  Chris,  horn.  61.  ad. 
pop.  Anfioch. 


178  ROBERT  PARSONS 

innumerable  commodities  of  y^  same,  and  prov- 
ing by  experience,  that  the  frequenting  of  this 
Sacrament,  is  the  cheefeste  meanes  to  come  to 
al  grace,  zeale,  feelinge,  and  lyfe  in  spiritual 
matters.  And  on  the  contrarye  parte,  that  the 
abstayninge  fi-om  the  same,  is  the  right  way  to 
al  spiritual  miserye,  and  for  the  soule  of  man 
to  wyther  away,  drye  up,  and  starve  :  even  as 
the  plant  dothe,  that  lacketh  moysture.  The 
which  we  see  nowe  by  experience,  in  manye  a 
thousand,  who  for  lacke  of  the  foode,  of  this 
blessed  Fountayne  of  grace,  are  as  dead,  in  al 
spiritual  cogitations,  and  deedes,  as  a  starved 
stake  in  the  hedge,  ^  from  bearing  of  flowers  : 
and  their  myndes  so  overgrowen,  with  the 
rancke  weedes  of  Carnalitye,  that  there  is  noe 
difference  betwirte  them,  and  a  brute  bullocke : 
for,  as  much  the  one  foloweth  his  passions,  as 
the  other.  Whereby  we  see,  what  a  losse  it  is, 
to  depryve  them  selves  from  the  use  of  this 
Sacrament. 

Fiftlye,  they  loose  al  the  merit  of  their 
good  deedes  what  soever. ^  For  as  S.  Gregorie 
sayeth.  Even  as,  none  receaved  their  peny  in  the 
Gospel,  hut  they  onely  which  had  labored  ivithin 

'  The  state  of  a  carnal  man. 

-  The  losse  of  al  merite  for  good  workes.  Mat.  20. 
(Jretj.  It.  35.  Mor.  ca.  5. 


ROBERT  PARSONS  179 

the  compasse  of  the  Viney circle :  soe  no  man  shal 
receave  any  reward,  for  any  good  deede  of  his, 
except  he  have  donne  it,  within  the  unitye  of 
the  Church.  So  that,  if  a  man  should  doe 
never  so  many  good  deedes,  geve  never  so 
manye  ahnes,^  nay,  as  S.  Cyprian  provetli 
if  a  man  should  suffer  never  so  many  thinges 
for  Christ,  yea  death  it  selfe,  yet  if  he  were 
out  of  the  unity  of  the  Catholick  Church, 
he  shal  have  no  rewarde  therefore.  And  not 
onely  this,  but  if  a  man  be  in  anye  mortal 
sinne^  what  soever,  as  long  as  he  abydeth  in  the 
same  without  repentance,  and  confession,  al 
devines  hould,  that  he  looseth  the  rewarde  of 
al  his  good  deedes.  And  the  reason  is,  because 
noe  worke  can  be  meritorious  of  it  selfe,  but 
onely  by  reson  of  the  grace  from  whence  it 
proceedeth :  but  by  everye  mortal  sinne  which 
a  man  committeth,  he  looseth  grace,  and  much 
more  by  goeinge  out  of  the  unitye  of  the 
Church.  And  therefore,  in  such  men  until  they 
repente,  there  can  be  noe  hope  of  anye  reward 
for  any  good  woorke  which  they  shall  doe. 

Sixthely,  they  lose  the  benefit  of  Commun- 
ion of  Saintes,^  which  we  protest  to  beleeve 
in  our  Creede.     That  is,  they  have  no  parte  of 

^  Cip.  de  sim.  prel.     Chri.  ho.  11.  ad.  Ephes. 
-  Vi.  D.  Tho.  1.  2.  and  oes  DD.  15.  qu.  119. 

^  The  losse  of  the  communion  of  Saintes. 


i8o  ROBERT  PARSONS 

the  Sacrifices,  oblations,  prayers,  fastinges, 
alnies,  and  other  good  woorks,  done  within  the 
Catholique  Church,  which  all  other  Catholiques 
have.  Finallye,  they  being  cut  of,  and  devided 
from  the  unitie  of  the  other  members,^  they 
take  parte  of  no  influence,  whiche  commeth 
from  the  head  to  the  bodye,  that  is,  from 
Christ  to  the  Churche :  nomore,  then  a  mans 
hande  once  cut  of,  doth  take  blood,  norishment, 
spirit,  or  lyfe,  from  the  arme,  from  which  it  is 
now  separated,  as  most  learnedly  S.  Austen 
dothe  discourse.-  Wherfore  they  must  needes 
^\ither  awaye,  and  make  drye  wood  for  hell 
fyre  :  and  as  good  for  them  it  were,  in  effect, 
to  be  of  anye  other  relygiou,  as  of  that,  whereof 
they  take  not  one  iote  of  commoditye.  And  to 
all  these  miseryes  they  are  driven,  onely  by 
going  to  the  protestants  Churches. 

^  Note  this  similitude. 

"Aug.  epi-if.  50.  ad  Bon't  factum. 


VIII 

WILLIAM  PRYNNE 

[This  remarkable  man,  a  pamphleteer  to  the 
marrow  of  his  bones,  was  born  in  1600,  and  was 
by  profession  a  barrister.  For  forty-two  years  he 
was  a  writer,  during  which  time  he  is  said  by 
Oldys  to  have  published  160  pamphlets,  besides 
several  large  folios  and  quartos,  a  matter  of  forty 
volumes  in  all.  Anthony  a  Wood  reckoned  that 
he  must  have  composed  at  the  rate  of  a  sheet  a 
day  from  the  time  he  reached  man's  estate.  His 
Histriomastix  cost  him  his  ears  in  1634.  In  1637 
he  was  pilloried  again,  this  time  in  the  company 
of  Bastwick  and  Burton,  all  of  them  having  pro- 
duced scurrilous  pamphlets  against  the  Church. 
Their  punishment  evoked  an  extraordinary  amount 
of  popular  sympathy  by  the  cruelty  of  the  sentence 
and  the  courage  and  wit  of  the  sufferers.  Prynne 
was  imprisoned  for  life  in  Jersey,  but  his  party 
soon  got  the  upper  hand,  and  when  the  Long 
Parliament  met  in  1640  Prynne  was  released.  He 
was  malignantly  active  in  the  prosecution  of  Laud  ; 
but  he  opposed  the  King's  trial,  and  was  expelled 
from  Parliament  by  Pride's  Purge  in  1648  and  im- 
prisoned. He  continued  to  be  a  thorn  in  the 
Protector's  side,  and  was  in  1650  imprisoned  for 
three  years  without  a  trial ;  he  forced  his  way 
back  into  the  House  in  1659  and  1660,  and  asserted 
the  rights  of  Cliarles  II.  with  the  greatest  boldness. 


1 82  WILLIAM  PRYNNE 

claiming  that  writs  should  be  issued  in  the  King's 
name.  In  the  discussions  on  the  punishment  of 
the  Kegicides  he  was  one  of  their  severest 
opponents,  and  did  all  he  could  do  limit  the  Act 
of  Indemnity.  He  ended  his  days  in  the  conli- 
dence  of  Charles  II.,  as  Keeper  of  the  Records, 
where  the  young  Anthony  a  Wood  found  him  re- 
ceiving visitors  with  'old-fashion  compliments 
such  as  were  used  in  the  reign  of  James  I.' 


From 

A  LOOKING-GLASSE 

For  all  Lordly  Prelates. 


There  is  nothing  now  more  rife  in  the  moiithes 
of  many  great  domineering  Lordly  Prelates^ 
theUy  that  their  Lordly  Episcopall  Jurisdiction^ 
Pompe  and  Soveraignty,  is  of  divine  Institution^ 
and  that  their  Sacred  Lordships,  are  undoubted, 
Bonnes  J  Successors,  heires  of  Christ,  and  his 
Apostles,  Which  men  might  well  enough 
believe,  did  not  their  lives  and  actions  most 
apparently  contradict  these  their  ambicious 
windy  words ;  But  if  men  may  judge  of  a  Tree 
by  the  fruits,  (as  our  Saviour  concludes  they 
may,  Math.  vii.  16)  or  of  men's  true  Fathers,  and 
Pedigrees  by  their  ivorks  (as  hee  also  resolves 
John  viii.  44.)    I  hope  these  arrogant  lofty  Pre- 


WILLIAM  PRYNNE  183 

lates,  will  not  be  offended  with  me,  if  I  make 
it  apparent  to  them  (and  others)  by  their  fruites 
and  workes,  that  they  are  so  farre  from  being 
the  Sons  of  Successors  of  Christ  and  his 
Apostles,  or  of  divine  Institution,  that,  they  are 
of  their  Father  the  Divell  {for  his  workes  and 
lusts  they  doe)  the  successors  from  the  Jewish 
high  Priests,  who  crucified  our  Saviour,  Per- 
secuted, silenced,  imprisoned,  excommunicated 
his  Apostles,  And  so,  of  Diabolicall  ordination, 
not  Divine. 

This  I  shall  plainely  and  briefely  demonstrate, 
in  two  distinct  Parallers.  The  first,  betweene 
the  Divell  and  Lordly  Prelates.  The  second, 
betweene  the  Jewish  high  Priests  and  them. 

The  1.  Parallel  betweene  the  Divell  and 
Lordly  Prelates, 

I.  First,  the  Divell  (for  his  condition  and 
quality)  is  an  Apostate  Angell,  who  kept  not 
his  first  estate  and  mansion^  and  abode  not 
in  the  truth,  Jude  vi.,  John  viii.  44.  Such  are 
all  Lordly  Prelates  and  Bishops,  both  by  their 
own  exposition  of  Rev.  ii.   1,   5,  6.^     Where 

1  William  Bishop  of  Rochester  his  first  Sermon  before 
K.  James  at  Hampton  Court,  Sept.  21,  1606.  B.  Downham 
his  consecration  Sermon  and  the  defence  thereof:  ivith 
B.  Bancroft's  Sermon  and  others.  B.  Montague  in  his 
Appeale  to  Cesar  B.  White  in  Brahounce's  Censure. 


184  WILLIAM  PRYNNE 

they  interpret,  the  Apostate  Angell  of  the  Church 
of  Ephesus,  to  bee  the  Lord  Bishop  of  that 
Church  alledgiiig  this  text  as  the  principall  Scrip- 
ture, to  prove  their  Hierarchie  of  Divine  Institu- 
tion ;  and  by  common  experience :  For  as  Lord 
Bishops  are  fallen  from  the  pietie,  holinesse, 
humility,  poverty,  zeale,  meeknesse,  laborious- 
nesse,  heavenly  mindednesse,  charity,  and 
equallity  with  other  Ministers,  that  vi^as  in  the 
true  Christian  Bishops  of  the  Primitive  Church 
and  now  openly  avow  the  Popish  and  Arminian 
Doctrine  of  The  Totall  and  Finall  Apostacy  of 
the  Scdntsfrom  grace?-  So  most  of  them  being 
made  Lord  Bishops,  (to  prove  this  doctrine  of 
Apostacy  true  by  their  practise)  fall  away  from 
the  pietie,  zeale,  holinesse,  meekenesse,  diligence, 
frequency  in  preaching,  and  most  other  vertues 
which  they  had  or  used  in  verity  or  pretence, 
before  they  were  made  Bishops  (in  case  they 
had  any  vertue  or  goodnesse  in  them  before,  of 
which  too  many  of  them  were  never  guiltie,) 
and  become  farre  worse  Christians,  farre  greater 
Persecutors  and  enemies  to  God,  his  truth,  his 

^  The  Calvinists  taught  that  the  Predestinate  could  never 
fall  from  grace,  while  'those  who  are  not  predestinated 
to  salvation  shall  be  necessarily  damned  for  their  sins.' 
The  Arminians,  who  were  deeply  opposed  to  Calvinism, 
held  all  the  bishoprics  and  places  of  trust  in  the  Church 
at  this  time,  with  Laud  at  their  head. 


WILLIAM  PRYNNE  185 

people,  and  more  unholy,  covetous,  lasie,  vicious 
in  their  lives  than  ever  they  were  before ;  as  all 
histories  and  experience  manifest,  beyond  all 
contradiction. 

And  how  many  of  our  present  Lord  Prelates 
are  turned  open  Apostates  from  the  established 
doctrine  and  discipline  of  this  Church  of  Eng- 
land to  Popeiie,  Arminianisme  and  Romish 
superstition,  and  all  the  zeale,  the  honesty,  the 
piety  and  goodnesse  they  had  or  seemed  onely 
to  have  before  they  were  Lord  Bishops,  I  leave 
to  every  mans  experience  to  determine,  some  of 
the  best  of  them  being  so  strangely  warped  of 
late,  that  it  made  a  great  Popish  learned  Lord 
confesse  openly  at  the  Table  this  last  summer. 
That  if  ever  hee  altered  his  Belegion,  hee  ivoidd 
turne  Puritan;  for  Puritans  (saith  hee)  are 
constant  to  their  owne  Religion  and  Tenets, 
hut  the  Bisho])S  so  fable  and  wavering  ivith  the 
times y  that  wee  know  not  ivhere  to  have  them, 
such  Apostate  Angels  are  they. 

Secondly,  The  Divell  is  an  uncleane  spirit, 
void  of  holinesse,  full  of  all  filthinesse  and 
impiety,  and  is  hardly  cast  out  of  those  he  once 
possesseth,  Math,  x.  1,  6,  12,  43.  Mark  i.  23, 
26,  27,  c.  V.  2,  8,  c.  vii.  25.  Luke  iv.  33,  36,  c. 
vi.  18.  Acts  viii.  7.  Such  are  most  Lordly  Prelates 
in  all  respects ;  witnesse   their  uncleane,  pro- 

M 


1 86  WILLIAM  PRYNNE 

fane,  voluptuous,  impious,  godlesse  lives  and 
actions  in  all  ages.^  Of  which  all  histories 
stincke  and  siirfet;  to  omit  the  present  filthi- 
nesse  of  many  of  them  :  And  how  hard  they  are 
to  be  cast  out  where  once  they  get  but  footing, 
our  owne  histories  and  instant  experience  too 
well  demonstrate. 

This  greate  Red  Dragon,  (the  Divell)  stoode 
before  the  Woman  (the  Church)  which  was 
reddy  to  be  delivered  of  a  man-childe,  for  to 
devoure  her  Childe  (her  spirituall  regenerate 
Children)  as  soone  as  it  was  borne.  Bei\  xii. 
4,  5.  Thus  those  Lordly  Prelates  doe  ;  No 
sooner  can  the  Church  be  reddy  to  be  delivered 
of  a  man-childe,  of  a  godly  faithfull  Pastor,  new 
Minister,  or  zealous  Christian,  but  these  great 
redd  scarlet  Dragons,  (who  can  suffer  dunibe 
Dogges,  deboist,^  licentious,  dissolute  drunken, 
scandalous  ^linisters,  and  supersticious  Pope- 
lings  to  sit  still  and  doe  what  they  list,  without 
danger  or  countroll)  are  at  hand  (like  Pharoah, 
and  the  divell)  to  devoure,  silence,  suppresse, 
persecute,  and  destroy  them  as  soone  as  they 
are  borne,  or  beginne  but  once  publiquely  to 
appeare  in  the  world ;  as  experience  too  well 

1  Balaeus  and  Platina  devitis  Pontificiun.  Godwins^ 
catalogue  of  Bishops :  The  Acts  of  English  Votaries  by 
Bale  Gentur.     Mag.  4.  to  13.  c.  7.  and  10. 

"  Debauched. 


WILLIAM  PRYNNE  187 

testifieth  in  most  places,  where  a  godly  jNIinister 
or  Christian  can  no  sooner  shew  his  head  or 
beginne  to  doe  God  faithfiill  service,  but  they 
presently  lay  trappes  and  snares  to  hamper,  or 
send  Apparitors,  Pursevants,  with  such  other 
Hellish  Furies,  to  seize  upon  them,  that  so  their 
Lordships  may  swallow  them  all  up  at  a  bit ; 
Yea  if  any  good  Booke  shall  beginne  to  peepe 
out  against  their  tyranny,  Prelacy,  and  Innova- 
tions, Howses,  Shipps,  Studdies,  Trunks  and 
Cabinets  must  be  broken  up  and  ransacked  for 
them  :  Such  ravenous  redd  Furies  Dragons  are 
they,  and  such  open  wide  sepulchres  are  their 
devouring  throates  to  swallow  downe  all  things 
that  any  way  make  against  them. 


Hell  and  everlasting  torments  are  prepared 
for  the  divell  and  his  Angels,  reserved  now  in 
chaines  of  darknesse  unto  the  ludgment  of  the 
great  day,  when  they  shall  be  all  cast  in  to  the 
lake  that  burneth  with  fire  and  brimstone  for 
ever:  MatK  xxv.  41.  2  Pet.  ii.  4.  Iiide  vi. 
Revel.  XX.  20.  So  are  they  prepared  likewise 
for  all  proud  Lordly,  persecuting,^  unpreaching, 

^  Oh  that  a  man  had  hut  the  view  of  hell ;  {saith  Father 
Latymer  in  his  Sermons,)  Hee  should  see  on  one  side  of  it  a 
row  of  unpreaching  Prelates  in  their  square  caps  asfarre 
as  hetweene  this  and  Dover,  I  loarrant  you,  as  farre  as 
hetweene  this  and  Dover. 


1 88  WILLIAM  PRYNNE 

oppressing y  tyrannizing  Prelates,  who  suppresse 
the  preaching  and  progresse  of  the  Gospell,  with 
the  Preachers,  Ministers,  and  Professors  of  it, 
and  hate  them  to  the  death :  And  if  there  be 
any  place  or  torments  in  Hell,  hotter,  deeper, 
greater,  or  more  insupportable,  horrid,  and 
loathsome  then  other.  Certainly  that  shall  be 
reserved  for  these  ungodly  Lord  Bishops  and 
false  Prophets ;  who  shall  have  the  same  con- 
demnation and  torments  inflicted  on  them  as 
the  divell  himselfe  shall  undergoe.  1  Tim.  iii. 
6,  7.  Rev.  XX.  10.  0  that  our  proud  perse- 
cuting Lording  Prelates  would  now  at  last 
consider  this,  o  that  they  would  repent  and 
amend  in  time  before  they  fall  do\^^le  headlong 
quick  into  Hell ;  Some  of  them  (as  their  late 
actions  manifest  to  all  the  world)  being  growne 
as  insolent,  as  impudent,  as  desperate  professed 
publique  enemies  to  purity,  piety,  holynes  the 
syncere  preaching  and  Preachers  of  Gods  word 
and  power  of  Religion,  as  the  very  divell  liim- 
selfe ;  and  some  of  them  (I  feare)  Avorse  then 
any  divells.  For  first  all  the  divells  beleeve 
Gods  threats,  word,  ludgments,  and  tremble  at 
them,  James  ii.  19,  but  they  (as  their  athe- 
isticall,  unjust,  unconscionable,  tyrannicall  lives 
and  actions  proclayme  to  all  men,)  doe  neither 
beleeve,  nor  tremble  at  them. 


IX 

JOHN  BASTWICK 

[Bast wick,  a  physician,  was  born  in  1593,  and 
died  1654.  He  got  into  prison  in  1635  for  a 
work  entitled  Flagellum  Pontificis,  and  while  in 
the  Gatehouse  lie  wrote  the  Letany,  for  which  in 
1637  he  was  sentenced  with  Prynne  and  Burton  to 
a  fine  of  £5000,  the  pillory,  the  loss  of  his  ears, 
and  imprisonment  for  life.  Like  Prynne,  he  was 
released  by  the  Long  Parliament.  Like  Prynne, 
too,  he  was  a  rigid  Presbyterian,  and  wrote  very 
bitterly  against  the  Independents.  Bastwick  is 
almost  unrivalled  for  scurrility  and  has  a  curious 
knack  of  using  strange  words,  to  illustrate  which 
talent  two  short  extracts  are  given  at  the  end. 
We  have  also  quoted  two  title  pages  of  the  Letcmy 
(for  it  is  in  four  parts)  to  illustrate  an  art  which 
is  now  unfortunately  a  lost  one.] 

From 
THE    LETANY 

of 

John  Bastwick, 

Dodor  of  Pk  is  iche , 

Being  now  full  of  Devotion,  as  well  in  respect  of  the 

common  calamities  of  plague  and  pestilence  ;  as  also 

of  his  owne  particular  miserie  :  lying  at  this  instant  in  Liriibo 

PcUi'uvi.     Set  downe  in  Two  Letters  to  Mr  Aq^cila  Wykes, 

keeper  of  the  Gatehouse,  his  good  Angell. 

In  which 

There  is  an  universall  challenge  to  the  whole  World, 

To  prove  the  parity  of  Ministers,  to  he  jure  divino. 

Also 

A  full  demonstration,  that  the  Bishops  are  neither  Christv ,  nor  the 


ipo  JOHN  BASTWICK 

Apostles  SuceessorSjbut  enemies  of  Christ  and  his  Kingdome, 

and  of  the  Kings  most  excellent  Majesties  prerogative  Royall. 

All  which  hee  imdertaketh  to  make  good  before  King  and  Counsell, 

with  the  hazard  of  otherwise  being  made  a  prey  to  their 

insatiable  indignation. 

A  Boolce  very  v.sefull,  and  profitable  for  all  good  Christians 

To  read,  for  the  stirring  tip  of  devotion  in  them  likevdse. 

Proverb,  chap.  25.  vers,  2. 

It  is  the  glory  of  God  to  conceale  a  thing,  hut  the  honour  of  the  King 

is  to  search  out  a  matter. 

Printed 

By  the  speciall  procurement,  and  for  the  especiall  use  of  our 

English  Prelats  in  the  yeare  of  Remembrance,  Anno  1637. 


I  CANNOT  deny  but  Dick  Shorts  petiilancy  and 
boldnesse  exceedingly  moved  me,  and  whereas, 
he  sent  me  word,  that  the  pillars  of  our  church 
supported  him,  /  replyed  that  they  were  the 
cateriy'dlars  of  the  Church,  and  so  they  are,  for 
they  devoiire  the  Church  of  God,  and  eate  up  his 
people  like  bread.  And  howsoever  they  glory  in 
the  name  of  Church,  and  stile  themselves  vni\\ 
that  dignity,  excluding  all  others  from  that 
title,  by  the  name  of  laicks :  yet  I  boldly 
averre,  they  are  so  far  from  being  the  Church, 
as  they  are  not  so  much  as  the  rubbish  of  that 
glorious  fabricke :  for  they  persecute,  destroy, 
and  mine  the  true  Church  of  Christ,  and  afflict 
and  weary  his  members  continually :  and  for 
that  end,  have  their  sivorne  servants  through 
the  kingdome,  to  give  them  information, 
against  both  Minister  and  people,  that  are  of 


JOHN  BASTWICK  19I 

a  more  godly  and  strict  life,  and  that  desire  in 
the  purity  of  his  Ordinance,  to  serve  y®  Lord,  I 
pray  looke  through  all  parishes,  and  you  shall 
see  (as  I  sayd)  they  have  their  servants  in 
them:  and  such  as  they  encourage  by  rewards, 
to  informe  against  them,  that  feare  the  all- 
mighty,  and  set  their  faces,  towards  the 
heavenly  Jerusalem. 

The  sextin  and  the  Church-ivardens  and 
Sldemen,  they  are  the  Prelats  servants  and 
slaves  principally  and  ex  officio,  and  they  first 
looke  to  the  Minister,  whether  he  bee  a  diligent 
observer  of  all  the  fopperyes  of  conformity ;  ^ 
and  all  additional  jacJienaps  trickes  and  Pop- 
ish abominations,  and  iwofane  fooleryes,  the 
Bishops,  by  their  Canons  and  articles  impose 
upon  him.  And  if  he  be  fayling  in  the  least, 
though  it  be  without  offence  to  any,  or 
contempt,  but  out  of  meere  conscience.  Let 
him  be  never  so  holy,  so  learned,  so  diligent  in 
his  Cure :  nay  let  him  doe  never  so  much  good, 

^  Such  as  '  capping,  ducking,  standing,  and  kneeling,' 
as  he  complains  in  another  part  of  the  Letany.  But  more 
obnoxious  ritual  was  common  at  this  time  ;  for,  besides 
the  surplice,  scarf  and  academic  cap  which  were  much 
disliked  by  the  Puritans,  copes  and  lighted  candles  were 
used,  and  we  happen  to  know,  from  a  list  of  Bishop 
Andrewes'  altar  furniture  which  has  come  down  to  us, 
that  he  also  used  incense,  wafer-bread,  coloured  altar- 
cloths  and  chalice-veils,  &c. 


192  JOHN  BASTWICK 

both  by  his  example  and  ministry,  he  is  ipso 
facto  throivne  into  a  thousand  perplexities  ;  and 
tossed  from  one  Court  to  another,  till  they  have 
quite  exhausted  him,  and  then  they  turne  him 
out,  from  house,  and  home,  and  send  him 
ahegging.  Nay,  which  is  yet  to  be  taken 
notice  of,  if  he  be  a  diligent  preacher,  and  a 
vigilant  watchman,  it  is  enough  to  ensnare  him, 
and  if  they  have  no  iust  qarrel,  they  will  faine 
articles  against  him,  and  ex  officio,  prosecute 
him  and  by  vertue  of  their  offix^e  they  will 
2nllage  and  rob  his  Study  first  (as  they  did  by 
me)  and  take  away  all  his  papers  and  writings, 
to  see  if  they  can  get  any  advantage  against 
him  out  of  them,  and  then  upon  one  triviall 
occasion  or  other,  or  if  he  will  not  cut  his 
owne  throat  by  his  answer,  they  forthivith 
suspend  him  saying  he  is  refractory  to  authority 
and  that  he  hath  not  answered  fully  enough, 
and  after  upon  refusall  of  farther  answer  (which 
is  the  best  declining  of  eminent  misery  and 
danger)  they  eiect  him  out  of  his  living  and 
honest  imployments,^  pretending  it  was  because 
of  his  contempt,  when  there  was  none.  Againe 
on  the  other  side,  if  he  ioyne  issue  and  the  sute 

^  The  persecution  to  which  the  puritans  were  subjected 
at  this  time  was  the  principal  cause  in  making  young 
Richard  Baxter  go  over  to  their  side. 


JOHN  BASTWICK  193 

be  brought  to  an  hearing,  the  man  depending 
iippon  tlie  goodnes  of  his  cause,  and  knowing 
the  integrity  of  his  owne  heart.  Then  comes 
forth  DOCTOR  SATAN,  the  accuser  of  the 
hretheren,  otherwise  called  the  KINGS 
ADVOCi^TE,  who  appearing  before  the  re- 
noivned  Metropoiditans,  that  poule  ^  and  share 
all  Christs  sheep,  and  the  other  reverend  sheep- 
sharers,  he  exceedingly  with  many  invectives 
and  contumelyes  aggravates  all  the  fainecl 
articles  against  him,  whom  he  never  knew 
nor  saw  before,  and  many  times  most 
affectionately  urgeth,  for  want  of  soldier  ^ 
grounds,  the  multiplicity  of  the  Articles, 
when  not  withstanding  they  have  made 
them  all  themselves,  and  in  such  a 
numerosity,  that  they  might  catch  him  in 
one  or  other  of  them,  and  it  is  easy  with  them 
to  make  a  two  or  three  hundred  of  them,  it  is 
their  trade  to  be  traducers,  that  cursed  occupa- 
tion. But  this  I  acknowledge  is  principally 
done,  both  by  the  advocate,  and  Judges,  when 
they  can  prove  nothing  against  him,  and  then 
indeed  the  advocate  flyes  to  the  dressar  and 
desires  that  right  horrible  board  to  take  into 
more  serious  consideration,  that  how  soever 
there   be   no   apparent  proof   of   any   of  the 

1  Poll.  2  Solider. 


194  JOHN  BAST  WICK 

articles  against  liini,  yet  the  number  and 
multitude  of  the  articles,  do  sufficiently  argue 
he  is  a  sublime  puritan :  and  therefore  it 
would  be  very  dangerous,  to  the  church,  for 
such  an  one,  to  have  any  publick  place  in  the 
ministry ;  uppon  which  supposition  he  humbly 
entreats  them  to  exercise  the  autority  of  the 
keyes,  and  to  thrust  out  so  dangerous  and 
unprofitable  a  member.  After  them  the  Pre- 
varicator hath  done  his  part  of  speech : 
he  leaveth  the  definitive  sentence,  to  these 
grave,  antient,  and  musty  Seniors,  who  after 
they  have  well  mumbled  him  ii'lth  the  stumps 
of  their  old  taunts  reviling  reproches,  and 
ivith  language  no  loay  beseeming  gravity,  nor 
Christs  successors:  after  I  say  they  have 
wearied  him  as  a  j^^^re  Iamb  among  a 
company  of  wolves,  then  imposing  upon  one 
shoulder  a  great  bag  of  round  costs  and  upon 
the  other  a  good  fine  to  pay  them  all  well, 
then  in  mere  conscience  they  thrust  him 
out  of  the  Synagouge  and  make  him  goe 
seeke  his  Li\ang  in  some  other  Country. 
And  of  these  passages  we  have  dayly  experi- 
ence.  And  by  such  wicked  inventions  as 
these,  they  have  rooted  out  and  undone,  almost 
all,  the  faitlifuU,  pious  and  diligent  Ministers 
in  the  kingdome,  and  such  as  made  conscience 


JOHN  BASTWICK  19S 

of  their  actions,  and  that  did  carefully  instruct 
the  people  in  the  wayes  of  God,  both  pub- 
lickly  and  privately,  and  stkred  up  others  by 
life  and  doctrine  so  to  doe,  and  to  all  this 
their  wickednes,  they  raile  against  them  to 
Kings  and  Nobles. 

And  m  those   good   Pastors  and  ministers 
places— they  have  installed,  foysted  in  and  put 
PRIESTS   SECUNDUM   ORDINEM    DIA- 
BOLI  for  the  must  part,  such  a  generation  of 
vipers  of  proud  imgratefull  idle  ivicked  and 
illiterate  asses,"-   and  such  profane  scornes  of 
all  piety  and  goodnes,  and  so  heasthj  lascivious, 
and  lecherous,  as  no  prety  tvench  can  keepe  her 
honesty  for  them,  and  men  of  such  conversa- 
tion for  the  generality  of  them   as   they  are 
not   fit  for    civill    society,    and  fellowes    so 
treacherous  and  perfideous,  as  no  man  can  he 
secure  in   their  company,  and  to  speake  the 
truth  spyes  in  the  familyes  of  all  the  Nobility 
and  gentry  where  they  reade  prayers  to  give 
InteUigence  against   them  ;   ^vithall,  so   braul- 

1  Bastwick  had  some  justification  for  writing  thus. 
There  were  a  good  many  drunken  and  immoral  clergy- 
men in  the  country ;  and  in  some  places  the  Puritans 
alone  kept  religion  alive.  But  the  Laudian  clergy  whom 
he  hated  were  good  and  zealous  men :  the  bad  clergy 
were  men  of  no  principles,  who  had  been  admitted 
because  of  the  dearth  of  priests. 


1(^6  JOHN  BAST  WICK 

ing  and  contentious,  as  upon  every  pety 
occasion,  they  sue  their  parishioners  in  one 
Court  or  other ;  especially,  if  they  be  honest 
men,  they  then  trounce  them  in  their  spirituall 
Courts  to  death,  and  this  to  drill  them  up  in 
the  law.  As  for  the  Gospell  and  preaching, 
they  never  knew  what  it  was,  nor  never  loved 
it,  as  by  their  lives  and  maners  is  evidently 
manifest.  For  they  will  doe  any  things  and 
he  of  any  religion  for  living  and  gaine :  they 
looke  not,  lohat  God  commands  or  forbids: 
for  they  are  pretily  ignorant  of  that,  hut  what 
the  Bishops,  and  the  times  require  and  inioyne 
and  such  as  these  would  the  Prelats  have 
every  tvhere  ivhich  are  fittest  for  their  devillish 
purposes. 

If  God  sayes.  Six  days  thou  shalt  labour  and 
doe  all  that  thou  hast  to  do,  hut  the  Seventh  is 
the  Sabbath  of  the  Lord  thy  God,  in  it  thou 
shalt  do  no  maner  of  worke  Sc.  If  the  Prelats 
say  to  the  contrary,  and  affirme  that  that 
commandement  is  now  abrogated,  and  all 
though  it  were  not,  yet  onely  the  laborious 
works  of  their  ordinary  calHng  are  forbidden, 
and  not  recreations,  and  corporal!  exercises  of 
pleasure:'^  and  therefore    command    and    bid 

^  The  Booh  of  Sports  permitted  the  use  of  lawful 
recreations   on    Sunday    after   Church    time.      Dancing, 


JOHN  BAST  WICK  197 

their  Priests,  to  publish  this  to  the  people,  that 
they  may  know  their  liberty,  for  the  profana- 
tion of  the  Lords  day,  and  the  shamefull  break- 
ing of  this  divine  precept,  those  Master  Sir 
Johns,  will  incontinently  doe  it.  Yea  if  it 
were  to  teach  them,  to  breake  all  Gods  com- 
mandements  at  once,  and  to  cast  away  and 
abandon  all  piety  and  goodnes  they  are  fit 
for  this  purpose.  If  it  bring  gains  they  will 
doe  any  thing,  be  it  never  so  wicked:  for  it  is 
their  calling.  If  God  sayes,  thou  shalt  not 
make  to  thy  selfe  any  graven  image  or  the 
likenes  of  any  thing  that  is  in  Heaven  above  or 
in  the  earth  beneath,  thou  shalt  not  bow  downe 
to  it  nor  worship  it,  Sc,  If  the  Prelats  say, 
notwithstanding,  I  will  have  you  make  you  an 
Altar,  and  worship  and  fall  downe  to  it,^  or  at 
least  to  worship  the  Communion  table,  or  a 
peece  of  bread,  and  make  the  people  doe  so 
too.  They  then  are  for  these  imployments 
likewise.     If  saint  Paul  and  the  other  Apostles 

archery,  maypoles,  leaping  were  declared  'lawful,'  but 
bear-baiting,  bowling,  and  interludes  were  declared  un- 
lawful ;  and  only  those  who  had  been  to  church  were 
allowed  to  join  in  the  sports.  The  Book  was  issued  by 
James  I.,  in  1618;  but  Charles  reissued  it  in  1633,  and 
enforced  the  reading  of  it  in  Churches.  The  Long 
Parliament  ordered  all  copies  of  it  to  be  burnt. 

1  Laud  enforced  the  practice,  enjoined  by  the  Canons 
of  1604,  of  bowing  to  the  altar. 


198  JOHN  BAST  WICK 

give  Timothy  and  Titus,  and  all  other  Ministers 
a  strict  charge,  to  preach  the  ivorcl  in  season 
ayid  out  of  season,  and  inioyne  them,  as  they 
love  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and  tvill  ansioer  it 
at  his  glorious  appearing,  that  they  diligently 
feed  their  flocks,  &c.  If  the  Prelats  say  to  the 
contrary,  and  hid  away  ivith  these  preachments, 
there  is  too  much  of  them  already.  They  will 
most  devoutly  and  dextrously  obey  it,  and 
never  preach  at  all:  or  if  at  any  time  they 
breake  silence,  it  were  better  they  held  their 
peace,  so  full  of  ignorance,  vanity  and  super- 
stition their  discourses  are  stuffed  withall,  as 
it  brings  a  nauciousnes  to  the  hearers.  And  all 
this  you  know  to  be  true.  I  pray  what  thinke 
you  now  of  your  great  Masters  ?  Tell  mee  in 
good  sooth,  do  you  thinke  your  Prelats  are  the 
Church  of  God,  and  those  holy  Fathers  you 
thought  they  icere  ? 

♦  *  -x-  -i^  * 

The  Answer 

of 

John  Bastwick, 

Doctor  of  Phisiche, 

To  the  exceptions  made  against  hifc 

Letany  by  A  learned  Gentleman, 

which  is 

Annexed  to  the  Letany  it  selfe,  as  Articles  super  addi- 

tionall  against  the 

Prelats. 

In  the  which  there  is,  A  full,  demonstration  and  proof  of  the 

Eeall  Absence  of  Christ  in  the  Sacrament  of  the  Lords  Supper, 


JOHN  BASTWICK  199 

which  the  iianity  and  impiety  of  the  Consecration  of 

Temples  Churches  and  Chappies. 

Also 

The  necessity  of  the  perpetiiall  motion  and  circulation 

of  worship  if  men  be  bound  to  bow  the  knees 

at  the  name  of  Jesus. 

This  is  to  follow  the  Letany  as  A  second  part  thereof. 

Printed 

In  the  yeare  of  Remembrance,  Anno  1637. 

'Tlieyi  are  exorbitantly  luxurious,  temulent,^ 
inordinatly  proud,  and  excessively  ingerdious  and 
exacting  :  and  of  such  deboshedness  ^  of  lives  and 
maners,  and  so  brutish  and  unnatural],  as  the  very 
sinnes  of  Sodome  and  the  Old  World  are  revived 
againe  amongst  them.  Ebriety,  venery,  fullnes  of 
bread,  and  idleness  are  the  least  sins  of  that 
convocation  and  accounted  among  them  but 
IDeccadigiios,  yea  a  theame  and  matter  of  ludibry  :^ 
Greater  cruelty,  extortion,  rapine,  robbery  and 
bribery  (to  say  nothing  of  devillary,  atheisme  and 
popery),  I  know  no  Mdiere. 

'For  the  Church  is  now  as  full  of  ceremonyes 
as  a  Dog  is  full  of  fleas.  At  the  entrance,  in  the 
middle  at  the  going  out  every  where  one  meets 
with  ceremonies.  ...  To  speak  the  truth,  such  a 
multitude  of  trumperyes  and  grollish  ceremonyes 
are  brought  in  by  the  Prelats,  as  all  the  substance 
of  religion  is  thrust  out,  I  meane  true  godlinesse, 
piety  and  charity,  all  which  they  have  excluded 
and  overthrowne  with  their  baggatelle  inventions.' 


1  The  Bishops'  officers.  -  Drunk. 

^  Debauchedness.  ^  Mockery. 


X 

RICHARD  BAXTER 

[Baxter  (1615-1691),  the  author  of  the  Saint's 
Best,  and  founder  of  popular  religious  literature 
in  the  modern  sense,  was  born  in  Shropshire, 
where  the  clergy  were  miserably  inefficient  and 
largely  dissolute.  In  1640  he  was  curate  at  Bridg- 
north, and  in  1641  began  his  great  work  at  Kidder- 
minster, which  from  being  a  very  ungodly  place 
became  a  wonderful  centre  of  piety  and  fervour. 
Here  he  remained  through  the  civil  war,  where  he 
acted  as  chaplain  to  one  of  Cromwell's  regiments, 
and  did  not  leave  it  finally  till  1660,  when  he  came 
to  London.  He  had  a  considerable  share  in  bring- 
ing back  Charles  II.,  and  preached  at  St  Margaret's, 
Westminster,  before  the  House  of  Commons  on  the 
day  before  Parliament  voted  the  Restoration.  He 
refused  the  offer  of  the  Bishopric  of  Hereford,  and 
after  taking  part  in  the  abortive  Savoy  Conference, 
he  gave  up  his  ministry  in  the  Church  of  England 
on  the  passing  of  the  Act  of  Uniformity  1662,  though 
he  always  held  his  orders  to  be  indefeasible,  and 
continued  to  communicate  in  his  Parish  Church. 
He  was  imprisoned  by  Judge  Jeffries  in  1684  for 
a  year  and  a  half,  but  was  treated  well  while  in 
prison.  He  continued  to  work  hard  at  his  writing, 
and  occasionally  preached  as  opportunity  offered, 
living  a  quiet  and  holy  life,  as  a  '  nonconformist 
minister  but  a  conformist  parishioner.' 

His  literary  activity  was  enormous  ;  over  160 
treatises  are  said  to  have  come  from  his  pen,  many 


RICHARD  BAXTER  201 

of  them  large  volumes,  and  many  pamphlets,  tracts 
and  "sheets."  Everything  he  wrote  found  a 
ready  sale,  and  since  he  died  there  has  never  been 
a  time  when  something  of  his  was  not  in  print ; 
nor  has  there  been  any  difference  of  opinion  as  to 
the  purity  and  beauty  of  his  style,  and  the  depth 
of  his  religion.  But  in  spite  of  his  popularity  he 
stood  very  much  alone  and  did  not  belong  to  any 
of  the  political  and  religious  parties,  active  though 
he  was  in  both  spheres.  He  was  strongly  opposed 
to  the  Independents,  nor  can  he  be  correctly 
described  as  a  Presbyterian,  merely  because  he 
believed  that  Presbyterian  orders  were  valid.  He 
was  a  non-conformist,  in  the  true  and  logical  sense 
of  the  word,  a  Churchman  (a  "  Catholic "  as  he 
often  described  himself  on  his  title-pages)  who 
could  not  conform  to  the  use  of  the  cross  in 
baptism,  and  other  points,  and  desired  the  further 
amendment  of  the  liturgy.  As  the  Sheet  for  the 
Ministry  shows,  he  held  firmly  to  an  authorised 
ministry;  defending  that  of  the  Commonwealth, 
in  a  companion  tract,  the  Second  Sheet,  on  the 
ground  that  it  was  mainly  composed  either  of 
men  episcopally  ordained  like  himself  or  of  those 
who  had  received  Presbyterian  orders.] 

ONE  SHEET  FOR  THE  MINISTRY, 

Against  the  Malignants  of  all  Sorts. 
1657. 

As  man's  first  felicity  was  attended  with  the 
malice  of  the  Serpent,  so  is  the  wonderful  work 
of  his  Restauration.  The  promise  of  Recon- 
ciliation by  the  seed  of  the  woman,  is  joyned 
with   a   proclamation  of  open  War  with   the 

Is 


202  RICHARD  BAXTER 

Serpent  and  his  seed.  The  enemity  was 
hottest  in  the  Devil  and  his  seed  against  Christ 
himself,  who  bare  and  overcame  it,  and  is 
become  the  Captain  of  our  Salvation,  that  his 
Church  may  overcome  by  his  Cross,  and 
Strength,  and  Conduct;  The  next  degree  of 
malice  is  against  his  Officers :  the  most 
eminent,  the  General  Officers  had  the  hottest 
assault :  and  his  ordinary  Officers  bear  the 
next :  That  we  shall  be  hated  of  all  men  for 
the  N'ame  of  Christ  {3Iat  x.  22)  is  still 
verified  to  our  experience.  Not  only  the 
openly  prophane  abhor  us  for  our  work-sake, 
but  half-hearted  professors  that  turn  from  the 
truth,  do  presently  turn  Malignants  against  the 
Ministry  ;  and  many  weak  ones  that  are  better 
minded,  are  dangerously  seduced  into  a  guilt  of 
the  sedition.  To  all  these  I  here  proclaim  in 
the  name  and  word  of  the  Lord,  Numb,  xvi. 
26.  [Depart  I  pray  you  from  the  tents  of  these 
wicked  men,  and  touch  nothing  of  theirSj  lest  ye 
be  consumed  in  all  their  sins.]  Which  I  shall 
now  open  to  you. 

1.  The  office  of  the  Ministry  is  an  undoubted 
Ordinance  of  God,  to  continue  in  the  Church  to 
the  end  of  the  world.  No  man  can  pretend 
that  they  ceased  with  the  Apostles;  for  it  is 
Gods  wiU  that  ordinary  fixed  Presbyters  shall 


RICHARD  BAXTER 


203 


be  ordained  in  every  Church,  Acts  xiv.  23.  Tit. 
i.  5.  1  Tim.  iii.  1.  2  Tim.  ii.  2.  And  Pastors 
and  Teachers  are  appointed  for  the  perfecting 
of  the  Saints,  for  the  work  of  the  Ministry,  and 
edifying  of  the  body  of  Christ ;  till  we  all  come 
to  a  perfect  man,  Ephes.  iv.  11,  12,  13.  A 
Ministry  authorized  to  Disciple  the  Nations, 
baptize  and  teach  them,  is  instituted  by  Christ 
as  King  and  Saviour,  and  have  his  Promise  to 
be  with  them  alway  to  the  end  of  the  world, 
Matth.  xxviii.  18,  19,  20.  The  same  necessity 
and  work  continueth ;  still  souls  are  born  and 
bred  in  darkness;  and  how  shall  they  be 
saved  without  believing,  or  believe  without 
hearing,  or  hear  without  preaching,  or  we 
preach  without  sending?  Rom.  x.  13,  14,  15. 
There  is  a  clearer  word  in  the  Gospel  for  the 
Ministry  then  the  Magistracy ;  though  enough 
for  both.     Our  own  call  I  shall  speak  of  anon. 

2.  These  Malignants  ^  set  themselves  against 
the  Principal  members  of  the  Body  of  Christ, 
that  are  in  it  as  the  eyes  and  hands  to  the 
natural    body,    1     Cor.    xii.    16,    19,    27,    29. 

^  The  word  Malignants  was  first  used  by  the  Parliament 
of  Charles  I.'s  evil  advisers  ;  then  it  came  to^meanall  who 
sided  with  the  King  against  the  Parliament.  But  here 
Baxter  uses  it  to  describe  those  sects  that  were  against 
the  ministry  established  under  the  Commonwealth,  such 
as  "Quakers,  Seekers,  Papists,"  and  Anabaptists. 


204  RICHARD  BAXTER 

Ephes.  iv.  11,  15.  The  Ministers  of  Christ,  and 
Stewards  of  the  mysteries  of  God,  1  Cor.  iv.  1. 
The  Over  seers  of  the  flock  that  is  purchased 
with  Christs  blood,  Acts  xx.  28.  They  are 
the  chief  members,  1.  in  Office ;  2.  Ordinarily 
in  gifts  for  edification  of  the  body  :  3.  And  in 
Grace.  Now  a  wound  in  the  stomack  or  liver 
is  more  mortal  to  the  body,  than  in  the  hand  : 
and  the  loss  of  an  eye  or  hand  is  worse  then 
the  loss  of  an  ear. 

3.  These  Malignants  are  therefore  princi- 
pally enemies  to  the  Church  it  self.  They 
take  on  them  to  be  only  against  the  Ministers, 
but  it  will  prove  most  against  the  people  and 
whole  Church.  If  they  smite  the  Shepherds, 
the  sheep  will  be  scattered.  How  can  they 
more  surely  ruin  Christs  Family,  then  by  cast- 
ing out  the  Stewards  that  must  Rule,  and  give 
the  children  their  meat  in  due  season,  even  milk 
to  the  babes,  and  stronger  meat  to  them  of  fiill 
age,  Heb.  v.  12, 13,  14,  Luke  xii.  42.  Mat.  xxiv. 
45.  What  readier  way  to  mine  the  Schools  of 
Christ,  then  by  casting  out  the  Teachers  that 
he  hath  appointed  under  him  ?  Or  to  mine  his 
Kingdom,  then  to  reject  his  Officers?  Or  to 
wrong  the  body,  then  to  cut  off  the  hands,  and 
pull  out  the  eyes,  or  to  destroy  the  principal 
parts:  Was  it  not  Ministers  that  planted  the 


RICHARD  BAXTER  205 

Churches,  and  converted  the  world,  and  have 
ever  born  off  the  assaults  of  enemies  ?  Where 
was  there  ever  Church  on  earth  that  con- 
tinued without  a  Minister?  The  great 
Kingdom  of  Nubia  fell  from  Christianity  for 
want  of  Preachers.  The  Nations  that  have  the 
weakest  and  fewest  Ministers,  have  the  least  of 
Christianity :  and  those  that  have  the  most 
and  ablest  Ministers,  have  the  most  flourishing 
state  of  Religion.  All  over  the  world  the 
church  doth  rise  or  fall  with  the  Mmistry  :  Cut 
down  the  Pillars,  and  the  building  falls.  He  is 
blind  that  sees  not  what  would  become  of  the 
Church,  were  it  not  for  the  Ministry.  Who 
should  teach  the  ignorant,  or  rebuke  the  ob- 
stinate, explain  the  word  of  truth,  and  stop  the 
mouths  of  proud  gain-say ers  ?  What  work  would 
heresies,  and  division,  and  prophanness  make, 
if  these  banks  were  cut  down  ?  ^Vhen  all  that 
can  be  done  is  still  too  little.  It  must  needs 
therefore  be  meet  enmity  against  the  Church 
that  makes  men  mahgnant  against  the  Ministry. 
4.  The  design  of  the  mahgners  of  the  Ministry 
is  plainly  against  the  Gospel  and  Christianity  it 
self.  They  take  the  readiest  way  in  the  world 
to  bring  in  Heathenism,  Infidelity  and  Atheism, 
which  Christianity  hath  so  far  bandished.  For 
it  is  the  Ministry  that  Christ  useth  to  bring  in 


2o6  RICHARD  BAXTER 

light,  and  drive  and  keep  out  this  damnable 
darkness,  Acts  xxvi.  17,  18.  [I  send  thee  to  open 
their  eyes  and  turn  them  from  darkness  to 
light,  &c.]  Why  are  so  many  Nations  Infidels, 
Mahometans  and  Idolaters,  but  for  want  of 
Ministers  to  preach  the  Gospel  to  them  ?  These 
Malignants  therefore  would  take  down  the  Sun 
and  banish  Christianity  out  of  the  world. 

5.  And  they  hinder  the  conversion  of 
particular  souls,  and  so  are  the  cmellest 
wretches  on  earth.  Though  an  Angel  must  be 
sent  to  Cornelius,  it  is  not  to  be  instead  of  a 
Preacher,  but  to  send  him  to  a  Preacher,  Acts 
X.  Though  Christ  would  wonderfully  appear 
to  Saul,  it  is  to  send  him  to  Ananias  for 
instruction.  Acts  ix.  Though  the  Jaylor  must 
feel  an  Earth-quake,  and  see  miracles,  it  is  but 
to  prepare  him  for  the  Ministers  words.  Acts 
xvi.  Philip  must  be  carried  by  an  Angel  to 
expound  to  an  Eunuch  the  word  that  must 
convert  him.  The  Ministry  is  Gods  instituted 
settled  way,  by  which  he  will  convert  and  save 
the  world,  as  truly  as  the  light  is  the  natural 
way  by  which  he  will  corporally  enlighten 
them,  Acts  ii.  18.  1  Tim,  iv.  16.  Matth.  v.  14. 
Bom,  X.  14.  Do  you  think  so  many  souls 
w  ould  be  converted  if  the  Ministry  were  down  ? 
D  o   you  not   see   that   the   very  contempt  of 


RICHARD  BAXTER  207 

them,  that  the  scorns  of  the  ungodly,  and 
opposition  of  Malignant  Apostates  have 
occasioned,  doth  hinder  most  of  the  ignorant 
and  prophane  from  receiving  the  saving  benefit 
of  the  Gospel?  How  many  millions  of  souls 
would  these  wretches  sweep  away  to  hell,  if 
they  had  their  will?  Wliile  thousands  are  in 
damnation  for  want  of  the  lights,  they  would 
take  it  from  you,  that  you  might  go  there  also. 
Do  you  not  understand  the  meaning  of  these 
words  against  Christs  Ministers  ?  Why  the 
meaning  is  this :  They  make  a  motion  to  the 
people  of  the  Lord,  to  go  to  Hell  with  one 
consent,  and  to  hate  those  that  are  appointed 
to  keep  them  out  of  it.  They  would  take  the 
bread  of  life  from  your  mouthes.  They  are 
attempting  an  hundred  times  more  cruelty  on 
you,  then  Herod  on  the  Jews  when  he  killed 
the  children,  or  the  Irish  that  murdered  the 
Protestants  by  thousands  ;  as  the  soul  is  of 
greater  worth  then  the  body. 

6.  The  Malignants  against  the  Ministry  are 
the  flat  enemies  of  Christ  himself,  and  so  he 
will  take  them  and  use  them.  He  that  would 
root  out  the  inferiour  Magistrates,  is  an  enemy 
to  the  Soveraign ;  and  he  that  is  against  the 
Officers  of  the  Army,  is  an  enemy  to  the 
General :    Christ     never     intended    to     stay 


2o8  RICHARD  BAXTER 

visibly  on  earth,  and  to  Teach  and  Ilule  the 
world  immediately  in  person ;  but  he  that  is 
the  King  will  Rule  by  his  Officers  ;  and  he  that 
is  Prophet  will  Teach  us  by  his  Officers  ;  and 
therefore  he  hath  plainly  told  us  [He  that 
heareth  you,  heareth  me;  and  he  that  despiseth 
you,  despiseth  me;  and  he  that  despiseth  me, 
despiseth  him  that  sent  me.  Luke  x.  16.]  0 
fearful  case  of  miserable  Malignants !  Durst 
thou  despise  the  Lord  thy  Maker  and 
Redeemer,  if  he  appeared  to  thee  in  his  glory  ! 
to  whom  the  Sun  it  self  is  as  darkness,  and  all 
the  world  as  dust  and  nothing.  Remember 
when  thou  next  speaketh  against  his  Officers, 
or  hearest  others  speak  against  them,  that  their 
words  are  spoken  against  the  face  of  Christ, 
and  of  the  Father.  I  would  not  be  found  in 
the  case  of  one  of  these  Malignants,  when 
Christ  shall  come  to  judge  his  enemies,  for  a 
thousand  worlds.  He  that  hath  said,  [Touch 
not  mine  annointed,  and  do  my  Prophets  no 
harm;  and  hath  rebuked  Kings  for  their  sakes, 
Psalm  cv.  15.]  Will  deride  all  those  that 
would  break  his  bands,  and  will  break  them  as 
u'ith  a  rod  of  iron  and  dash  them  in  pieces  as  a 
potters  vessel.  Psalm  ii.  iii.  iv.  ix.  And  as  he  hath 
told  them  plainly,  [ivho  so  despiseth  the  Word 
shall  be  destroyed.  Pro  v.  xiii.  13.]  And  [He  that 


RICHARD  BAXTER  209 

despiseth,  despiseth  not  man  but  God,  1  Thes.  iv. 
8.]  So  he  that  told  us  that  it  shall  he  easier 
for  Sodom  and  Gomorrah  in  the  day  of  judge- 
ment, then  for  such,  Mat.  x.  15.  Many  a 
thousand  prouder  enemies  then  you  hath  Christ 
broken,  and  look  to  your  selves,  for  your  day  is 
coming.  If  you  had  but  stumbled  on  this  stone, 
it  ivould  have  broken  you  in  pieces;  but  seeing 
you  will  strive  against  it,  it  will  fall  on  you, 
and  grinde  you  to  powder,  Matth.  xx.  44.  And 
then  you  shall  see  that  he  hath  made  them  his 
Embassadors,  will  bear  them  out,  and  say,  \_In 
as  much  as  you  did  it  to  those,  you  did  it  to 
me.]  And  you  shall  then  say.  Blessed  are  they 
that  trust  in  him. 

7.  It  is  apparent  that  these  enemies  of  the 
Ministers,  are  playing  the  Papists  game. 
Because  the  just  disgrace  of  their  Ministry,  was 
the  ruin  of  their  Kingdom ;  and  therefore  they 
hope  to  win  of  us  at  the  same  game.  They 
know  that  if  the  people  were  brought  into  a 
hatred  or  suspition  of  their  guides,  they  might 
the  easier  be  won  to  them.  They  teU  us 
in  their  writings,  that  not  one  of  ten  of  our 
people  but  taketh  his  faith  on  trust  from  their 
Teachers ;  and  therefore  take  them  off  from 
them,  and  they  will  fall :  but  they  delude  them- 
selves in  this :     For  though  the  ungodly  among 


2IO  RICHARD  BAXTER 

us  have  no  true  faith  of  their  own,  and  the 
godly  must  lean  on  the  hand  of  their  supporters, 
yet  there  is  in  them  a  living  principle  ;  and  we 
do  not  as  the  Papist  priests,  teach  our  people  to 
see  with  our  eyes,  and  no  matter  for  their  own  : 
but  we  help  to  clear  their  own  eye-sight.  Doubt 
not  but  the  most  of  the  sects  in  the  Land  that 
rail  against  the  Ministry,  are  knowingly  or 
ignorantly  the  Agents  of  the  Papists.  For  the 
principal  work  of  a  Papist  is  to  cry  down  the 
Ministry,  and  the  Scripture,  and  to  set  all  they 
can  on  the  same  work. 

8.  These  sects  that  are  against  the  Ministry 
do  all  the  same  work  as  the  Drunkards,  Whore- 
mongers, Covetous,  and  all  ungodly  persons  in 
our  Parish  do :  And  therefore  it  seems  they 
are  guided  by  the  same  spirit.  It  is  the  work 
of  Drunkards  and  all  these  wicked  wretches  to 
hate,  and  despise,  and  revile  the  Ministers,  and 
to  teach  others  to  say  as  they.  And  just  so  do 
Quakers,  Seekers,  Papists  and  all  other  Malig- 
nants  reproach  the  same  Ministers :  And  yet 
the  bhnd  \^Tetches  will  not  see  the  same  Spirit 
moveth  them. 

9.  It  is  apparent  that  it  is  the  Devils  game 
they  play,  and  his  interest  and  Kingdom  which 
they  promote.  Who  fights  against  Christs 
Officers   and   Army,   but   the   General   of  the 


RICHARD  BAXTER  21 1 

contrary  Aiiny  ?  What  greater  Service  could 
all  the  World  do  for  the  Devil  then  to  cast  out 
the  Mmisters  of  Christ?  And  what  more 
would  the  Devil  himself  desire,  to  set  up  his 
Kingdom  and  suppress  the  Church  ?  Wretches ! 
you  shall  shortly  see  your  master,  and  he  shall 
pay  you  your  wages  contrary  to  your  expecta- 
tion. Read  Gods  Word  to  a  Malignant,  Acts 
xiii.  10.1 

10.  These  enemies  do  reproach  as  faithful  a 
Ministry  as  the  world  enjoyeth,  and  their 
malice  hath  so  little  footing,  as  that  the  result 
must  be  their  own  shame.  Among  the  Papists 
indeed  there  are  Mass-priests  that  can  but  read 
a  Mass,  whose  office  is  to  turn  a  piece  of  bread 
into  a  God ;  And  yet  these  the  Malignants 
either  let  alone,  or  liken  us  to  them.  The 
Greeks,  and  Ethiopians,  and  most  of  the 
Christian  world,  would  have  a  Ministry  that 
seldom  or  never  preach  to  them,  but  read 
Common-prayer  and  Homilies.  The  most  of 
Protestant  Churches  have  a  learned  Ministry 
that  is  so  taken  up  with  Controversies ;  that 
they  are  much  less  in  the  powerful  preaching 
and  practice  of  godliness :  Above  all  Nations 
under  heaven,  the  EngUsh  are  set  upon  Practical 

^  Sb  Paul's  words  to  Ely  mas  the  Sorcerer, — "  0  full  of 
all  subtilty  and  all  mischief,  thou  child  of  the  devil,  &c." 


212  RICHARD  BAXTER 

Divinity  and  Holiness ;  and  yet  even  they  are 
by  JMalignity  chosen  out  for  reproach.  Alas, 
scandals  in  the  ISIinistry,  (as  drunkenness, 
swearing,  &c,)  among  other  Nations  are  but 
too  common  :  but  in  England  Magistrates  and 
Ministers  combine  against  them.  Ministers  are 
still  spurring  on  the  Magistrates  to  cast  out  the 
insufficient,  neghgent  and  scandalous ;  and 
desire  and  use  more  severity  with  men  of  their 
own  profession,  then  with  Magistrates  or  any 
others  in  the  Land.  In  nothing  are  they  more 
zealous  then  to  sweep  out  all  the  remnant  of 
the  scandalous.  And  for  themselves,  they  are 
devoted  to  the  work  of  the  Lord,  and  think 
nothing  too  much  that  they  are  able  to  perform, 
but  preach  in  season  and  out  of  season,  with  ail 
long-suffering  and  doctrine  ;  and  yet  Malignants 
make  them  their  reproach. 

11.  It  is  abundance  of  Pride  and  Impudency, 
that  these  Malignant  enemies  are  guilty  of. 
They  are  most  of  them  persons  of  lamentable 
ignorance ;  and  yet  they  dare  revile  at  the 
Teachers,  and  think  themselves  wise  enough  to 
rebuke  and  teach  them  :  Many  of  them  are  men 
of  wicked  lives  ;  and  yet  they  can  tell  the 
world  how  bad  the  ministers  are.  A  Railer,  a 
Drunkard,  a  Covetous  Worlding,  an  Ignorant 
Sott,   is   the   likest    person  to   fall   upon   the 


RICHARD  BAXTER  213 

Minister;  and  the  Owl  will  call  the  Lark  a 
night-bird.  Alas,  when  we  come  to  try  them, 
what  dark  wretches  do  we  find  them !  and 
should  be  glad  if  they  were  but  teachable. 
And  yet  they  have  learnt  the  Devils  first 
lesson,  to  despise  their  Teachers. 

12.  And  0  what  barbarous  ingratitude  are 
these  Malignant  enemies  of  the  Ministry  guilty 
of !  For  whom  do  we  watch,  but  for  them  and 
others  ?  Can  they  be  so  blind  as  to  think  a 
painful  Minister  doth  make  it  his  design  to  seek 
himself,  or  to  look  after  great  matters  in  the 
world  ?  Would  not  the  time,  and  labour,  and 
cost  that  they  are  at  in  the  Schools  and 
Universities  have  fitted  them  for  a  more  gain- 
ful trade  ?  Do  not  Lawyers,  Physicians,  &c., 
live  a  far  easier,  and  in  the  world  a  more 
honourable  plentiful  life?  Have  not  the 
Ministers  themselves  been  the  principal 
Instruments  of  taking  down  Bishops,  Deans 
and  Chapters,  Arch-deacons,  Prebends,  and  all 
means  of  preferment  ?  And  what  have  they  got 
by  it?  or  ever  endeavoured?  Speak  malice, 
and  sjiare  not.  Is  it  any  thing  but  what  they 
had  before  ?  even  the  maintenance  due  to  their 
particular  charge.  Unthankful  wretches!  It 
is  for  your  sakes  and  souls  that  they  study,  and 
pray,  and   watch,  and   fast,    and   exhort,  and 


214  RICHARD  BAXTER 

labour,  to  the  consuming  of  their  strength  ;  and 
when  they  have  done,  are  made  the  Drunkards 
song,  and  the  scorn  of  all  the  wicked  of  the 
Countrey  ;  and  when  they  spend  and  are  spent, 
the  more  they  love,  the  less  they  are  beloved. 
In  the  times  of  this  greatest  prosperity  of  the 
Church,  they  live  under  constant  hatred  and 
scorn,  from  those  that  they  would  save,  and 
will  not  let  alone  in  sin.  And  what  do  they 
endure  all  this  for  but  Gods  honour  and  your 
salvation?  Would  we  be  Ministers  for  any 
lower  ends  ?  Let  shame  from  God  and  man  be 
on  the  face  of  such  a  Minister !  I  profess, 
were  it  not  for  the  belief  of  the  greatness  and 
necessity,  and  excellency  of  the  truths  that  I 
am  to  preach,  and  for  the  will  of  God  and  the 
good  of  souls,  I  would  be  a  Plow-man,  or  the 
meanest  Trade,  if  not  a  Sweep-Chimney,  rather 
then  a  Minister.  Must  we  break  our  health, 
and  lay  by  all  our  worldly  interest,  for  you, 
even  for  you,  and  think  not  our  lives  and 
labours  too  good  or  too  dear  to  further  your 
salvation,  and  must  we  by  you,  even  by  you,  be 
reproached  after  all  ?  God  will  be  judge 
between  you  and  us,  whether  this  be  not 
inhumane  ingratitude,  and  whether  we  deserve 
it  at  your  hands. 


XI 

GEORGE  FOX 

[The  founder  of  the  Society  of  Friends  was  born 
1624.  He  felt  a  special  call  in  1643,  and  shortly 
afterwards  began  to  form  his  Society,  whose  mem- 
bers were  first  called  Quakers  in  1650.  He  spent 
his  life  in  itinerant  preaching ;  after  visiting 
nearly  every  corner  of  England,  as  well  as  Holland 
and  America,  and  suftering  imprisonment  eight 
times,  he  died  in  1691.  He  soon  saw  the  import- 
ance of  pamphlet  writing,  and  wrote  many  himself, 
his  followers  being  the  most  prolific  and  earnest, 
not  to  say  violent,  of  pamphleteers.  It  is  hardly 
necessary  to  point  out  the  great  significance  of  the 
Quaker  protest  against  the  formalism  and  bibliolatry 
of  the  seventeenth  Century.  The  tract  here  given  is 
chosen  for  its  insistance  on  the  central  Quaker 
doctrine  of  the  sufiiciency  of  the  light  within — 
a  kind  of  sublime  anarchism,  which  led  by  reaction 
into  the  depreciation  of  "enthusiasm"  in  the  next 
century  (pp.  273,  292).  We  find  Law  lamenting  at 
the  beginning  of  that  utilitarian  age  that  "even 
the  most  worthy  and  pious  among  the  clergy  of 
the  Established  Church  are  afraid  to  assert  the 
sufficiency  of  the  Divine  Light,  because  the 
Quakers,  who  have  broken  o&  from  the  Church 
have  made  this  doctrine  their  corner-stone."  If 
Fox  had  been  able  to  reform  the  Church  from 
within,  the  history  of  the  Hanoverian  age  might 


2i6  GEORGE  FOX 

have  been  very  different  to  what  it  was.  The 
tract  Concerning  the  Rule  is  taken  from  a  series 
Concerning  Revelation,  Prophecy,  Measure  and  the 
Rule,  and  the  Inspiration  and  sufficiency  of  the 
Spirit,  published  in  1676.] 


CONCERNING  THE  RULE 

Now  mark  you  Professors  of  the  Letters,  that 
say,  The  Scripture  is  your  Rule;  Was  not 
Circumcision  of  the  Letter  of  the  Scripture  ? 
and  yet  the  Apostle  saith,  It  avails  nothing^ 
hut  a  Neiv  Creature:  and  that  which  the 
Apostle  rejoyced  in,  was  the  Cross  of  Christ, 
in  which  he  was  crucified  to  the  World,  and 
the  World  to  him.  And  is  not  the  Cross  of 
Christ  the  Power  of  God?  And  as  many 
as  walk  according  to  this  Rule,  and  rejoyce 
in  it  (to  wit)  the  Cross  of  Christ,  and 
the  New  Creature?  I  say,  as  many  as 
walk  according  to  this  Rule,  Peace  be  upon 
them,  and  Mercy,  and  upon  the  Israel  of 
God.  For  the  Apostle  saith.  The  Cross  of 
Christ  is  the  Power  of  God;  so  that  the 
Rule  of  the  New  Creature  in  Christ  he  sets 
forth  to  be  the  Rule.  And  you  that  have 
the  Form  of  Godliness,  and  deny  the  Power 
thereof,  and  the  having  the  Spirit  that  gave 
it  forth  now  in  your  days,  and   call   it  your 


GEORGE  FOX  217 

Rule,  and  yet  walk  quite  contrary  to  it,  are 
to  be  turned  away  from ;  yet  not  turn  away 
from  the  Scriptures,  but  from  you,  that  walk 
contrary  to  them,  and  the  Spirit  that  gave 
them  forth. 

And  the  Apostle  saith  in  Phil,  iii.  16. 
Nevertheless  in  that  whereunto  we  are  come, 
let  us  proceed  by  one  Rule,  that  we  may  mind 
one  thing;  for  he  had  told  them  with  Weeping 
of  such  as  were  Enemies  to  the  Cross  of 
Christ,  whose  End  is  Damnation,  whose  God 
is  their  Belly,  and  glory  in  their  Shame,  who 
mind  earthly  things. 

Now  were  not  they  Enemies  to  the  Rule 
then,  which  was  the  Cross  of  Christ,  the 
Power  of  God?  And  what  was  this  Rule 
they  were  to  walk  by?  Was  it  not  that 
which  God  had  distributed  to  them,  the 
Spirit  of  God?  For  these,  whose  Belly  was 
their  God,  and  gloried  in  their  Shame,  and 
minded  earthly  things,  whose  End  was  Damna- 
tion; these  were  a  kind  of  Christians,  which 
its  to  be  feared  there  is  too  many  such  now, 
which  were  Enemies  to  the  Cross  of  Christ, 
which  is  the  Power  of  God,  which  were  to 
be  turned  away  from :  And  was  not  the  Grace 
of  God,  which  God  said  should  be  sufficient 
for  Paul,  and  his   Strength   made  perfect  in 


2i8  GEORGE  FOX 

his  Weakness ;  was  not  this  Grace  and 
Strength  a  sufficient  Rule  for  Paul  ? 

And  doth  not  the  Apostle  say,  Let  Christ 
Rule  in  your  Hearts  by  Faith,  who  shall  rule 
all  Nations  with  a  Bod  of  Iron  ?  So  is  not 
he  a  sufficient  Rule  in  the  Heart  by  Faith, 
and  a  sufficient  Rule  to  rule  all  Nations, 
Bev.  xii.  5,  yea,  and  sufficient  to  rule  the 
Heathen,  Bev.  xix.  15? 

And  doth  not  Christ  say,  /  will  send  you  the 
Spirit  of  Truth,  which  shall  lead  you  into  all 
Truth,  and  bring  to  your  Bemembrance  the 
Words  I  have  spoken  unto  you  ? 

Is  not  this  Spirit  a  sufficient  Rule,  that  leads 
into  aU  Truth  ? 

And  in  Neh.  ix.  The  Lord  gave  his  good 
Spirit  to  the  People,  his  good  Spirit  to 
instruct  them,  and  they  rebelled  against  it. 

And  were  not  they  reproved  for  so  doing? 
and  was  not  that  a  sufficient  Rule?  and  are 
not  they  the  Sons  of  God  that  are  led  by  the 
Spirit  of  God?  and  is  not  that  a  sufficient 
Rule  to  lead  and  guide  ? 

And  the  Lord  saith.  He  that  hath  the  Son, 
hath  Life. 

And  is  not  here  a  sufficient  Rule  ? 

And  John  said.  These  things  I  have  written 
unto  you,  concerning  them  that  deceive  you  ;  but 


GEORGE  FOX  219 

the  Anointing  which  you  have  received  of  him, 
dwelleth  in  you;  and  you  need  not  that  any 
man  teach  you,  but  as  the  same  Anointing 
teacheth  you  of  all  things,  and  is  true,  and  is  no 
Lye. 

And  is  not  this  a  sufficient  Rule,  this  Teacher, 
that  people  might  see  the  Deceivers,  and  shun 
them  ? 

And  the  Lord  saith,  /  will  put  my  Laivs  in 
your  Minds,  and  write  them  in  your  Hearts  ; 
and  I  will  he  their  God,  and  they  shall  he  my 
people  ;  and  they  shall  not  teach  every  man  his 
Neighhour  and  every  man  his  Brother,  saying. 
Know  the  Lord;  for  all  shall  know  me  from 
the  least  of  them  to  the  greatest  of  them :  and  is 
not  this  Law  and  New  Covenant  a  sufficient 
Eule  to  know  God  by  ?  And  was  not  the 
Holy  Ghost  a  sufficient  Rule,  that  led  Moses 
and  the  Prophets  to  give  forth  the  Scriptures  ? 
And  was  not  the  Holy  Ghost  a  sufficient  Rule 
that  led  the  Disciples  and  Apostles  of  Jesus 
Christ  into  all  Truth,  and  see  the  fulfilling  of 
the  Law  and  Prophets  in  Christ,  and  brought 
to  their  Memories  the  Words  that  Christ  spoke, 
and  afterwards  to  record  them  ?  and  is  not  the 
same  Holy  Ghost  a  sufficient  Rule  for  all  Chris- 
tians now  to  know  God,  and  Christ,  and  the 
Scriptures,  and  lead  them  all  into  the  Tj-uth  of 


220  GEORGE  FOX 

them;  in  which  Holy  Ghost  they  must  pray 
in,  and  have  their  Fellowship,  seeing  no  man 
knows  the  things  of  God  without  the  Spirit 
of  God,  which  searcheth  all  things,  and  they 
are  spiritually  discerned,  and  the  natural  man 
perceives  them  not,  they  are  Foolishness  to 
him;  and  how  can  they  be  his  Ride,  when 
they   are   Foolishness  to  him,  as  in  1  Cor.  ii. 

And  what  Rule  had  Abel,  and  Enoch,  and 
Noah,  and  Abraham,  Isaac,  and  Jacob,  and 
Moses,  before  Scriptures  were  given  forth? 
did  not  they  walk  by  Faith,  which  was  the 
Gift  of  God,  yea,  and  to  be  perfect  ?  was  not 
Abraham  commanded  to  walk  before  him; 
and  be  perfect,  which  Perfection  you  cannot 
attain  unto  by  your  Rule,  the  Letter,  and 
walking  in  the  oldness  of  the  Letter  ;  for  you 
must  serve  God  in  the  N^ewness  of  Life,  and 
not  in  the  Oldness  of  the  Letter,  Rom.  vii.  6. 
For  the  Letter  kllleth,  but  the  Spirit  giveth 
Life,  2  Cor.  iii.  6.  And  also,  was  not  that 
Faith  a  sufficient  Rule  for  all  the  Old  Fathers 
to  walk  by?  and  must  not  we  walk  in  the 
steps  of  the  Faith  of  our  Father  Abraham, 
Rom.  iv.  12. 

And  the  Apostle  saith,  But  he  is  a  Jew 
who  is  one  within,  and  the  Circumcision  is 
of  the  Heart,  in  the  Spirit,  and  not  in  the 


GEORGE  FOX  221 

Letter y  whose  Praise  is  not  of  men,  but  of 
God. 

So,  is  not  he  a  Christian  who  is  one  with- 
in, in  the  Heart  (and  not  the  Letter)  whose 
Praise  is  of  God,  and  not  of  men,  seeing  that 
many  may  have  the  Form  of  Godliness,  but 
deny  the  Power  thereof,  which  are  to  be 
turned  away  from  :  And  may  not  such  say 
they  are  Christians,  as  the  Jews  said  they 
were  Jews,  and  were  not,  but  the  Synagogue 
of  Satan  ? 

And  the  Apostle  said.  Henceforth  know  we 
no  man  after  the  Flesh,  yea,  though  we  have 
known  Christ  after  the  Flesh,  yet  henceforth 
know  we  him  so  no  more,  2  Cor.  v.  16. 

And  their  Fellowship  stood  in  the  Spirit, 
and  they  were  to  know  Christ  and  one  an- 
other in  the  Spirit,  and  to  keep  the  Unity 
of  the  Spirit,  which  is  the  Bond  of  Peace, 
yea,  even  of  the  Prince  of  Princes  Peace : 
but  they  that  deny  the  having  of  that  Spirit 
the  Apostles  were  in,  know  not  Christ,  nor 
the  Fellowship  of  the  Saints,  nor  the  Prince 
of  Princes  Peace. 

And  the  Apostle  saith  in  Bom,  xv.  18.,  For 
I  dare  not  speak  of  anything  which  Christ 
hath  not  wrought  by  me,  to  make  the  Gentiles 
obedient  by    Word    and   Deed,      Now  mark, 


222  GEORGE  FOX 

did  not  he  keep  to  the  Measure  of  the  Rule 
which  Christ  had  wrought  in  him  ? 

Now,  come  all  ye  Priests  and  Professors  in 
Christendom,  and  try  your  selves  by  the  Scrip- 
tures, which  you  say  is  your  Rule ;  how  dare 
you  speak  any  thing,  to  make  People  obedient 
in  Word  and  Deed,  that  Christ  hath  not 
wrought  in  you  or  by  you  ?  Are  not  you 
boasting  of  other  men's  Lines  and  Labours, 
that  other  men  have  made  ready  for  your 
Hands?  Do  not  you  want  the  Fear  of  God 
in  your  Hearts,  as  was  in  the  Apostles,  who 
durst  not  speak  any  thing  but  what  Christ 
had  wrought  by  them  to  make  People 
obedient  by  Word  and  Deed  ?  Ought  not 
the  Apostle  here  to  be  your  Example?  and 
then  Christ  would  have  the  Glory  of  that 
which  he  works  by  you  in  People  and  in 
you,  and  your  own  Wills  would  be  laid  in 
the  dust.  And  therefore,  is  not  all  that 
which  you  speak  to  people,  that  which 
Christ  hath  not  wrought  in  you  and  by 
you,  like  the  False  Prophets,  using  your 
Tongues,  and  the  False  Apostles  boast  of 
other  mens  Lines. 

And  the  Apostle  saith  in  Romans  iii.  24. 
And  we  are  justified  freely  by  his  Grace, 
through  the  Redemption  that  is  in  Christ  Jesus, 


GEORGE  FOX  223 

And  in  Romans  iv.  12,  16.  But  unto  them 
also  that  walk  in  the  steps  of  the  Faith  of  our 
Father  Abraham.  And  is  not  this  a  Rule 
sufficient  ? 

And  in  Romans  viii.  1,  2.  Now  there  is  no 
Condemnation  to  them  which  are  in  Christ 
Jesus,  who  walk  not  after  the  Flesh,  hut  after 
the  Spirit;  for  the  Law  of  the  Spirit  of  Life, 
ivhich  is  in  Christ  Jesus,  hath  made  me  free 
from  the  Law  of  Sin  and  Death. 

Now,  is  not  this  Spirit  a  sufficient  Rule  to 
walk  by  ?  But  you  that  say  it  is  not  the  Rule, 
do  not  you  remain  under  Condemnation,  under 
the  Law  of  Sin  and  Death,  pleading  for  it,  and 
not  for  Freedom  by  the  Law  of  the  Spirit  in 
Christ  on  this  side  the  Grave. 

And  further,  the  Apostle  saith,  But  if  ye 
Mortifie  the  Deeds  of  the  Flesh  by  the  Spirit, 
ye  shall  live.  Therefore  is  not  this  Spirit  a 
sufficient  Rule  to  walk  by? 

And  in  2  Cor.  v.  the  Apostle  saith.  For  we 
walk  by  Faith,  and  not  by  Sight.  [Mark,  not 
by  Sight].  The  Church  was  not  to  walk  by 
Sight,  but  by  Faith,  which  Christ  is  the  Author 
of ;  and  is  not  this  sufficient  ?  And  who  walk 
by  Faith,  they  walk  in  the  Steps  of  the  Faith 
of  our  Father  Abraham,  his  Faith,  which  was 
before  Scriptures  were  written  ?  and  is  not  this 


?24  GEORGE  FOX 

a  sufficient  Rule  for  all  the  faithful,  which  is 
testified  of  in  the  Scripture,  and  was  before 
Scripture  was  Avritten  ;  and  which  Scripture  is 
to  be  befieved,  and  fulfilled,  and  practised,  &c. 

And  Ephes,  ii.  8.  By  Grace  are  ye  saved, 
through  Faith,  and  not  of  your  selves,  it  is  the 
Gift  of  God.  So  is  not  that  sufficient  to  walk 
by,  which  saves  ? 

And  in  1  John  i.  7.  If  we  walk  in  the 
Light,  as  he  is  in  the  Light,  we  have  Fellowship 
one  with  another,  and  the  Blood  of  Jesus 
Christ,  the  Son  of  God,  cleanses  us  from  all 
Sin. 

So  is  not  this  Light  sufficient  to  preserve  the 
Fellowship,  by  walking  in  it?  and  is  there 
any  Cleansing  from  all  Sin  by  the  Blood  of 
Jesus  Christ,  but  first  they  must  walk  in  the 
Light  ?  There  may  be  a  talking  of  the  Blood 
of  Christ,  and  pleading  for  the  Body  of  Sin  and 
Death,  and  Imperfections  to  the  Grave  ;  so  that 
only  talking  of  the  Blood  of  Christ  will  do  them 
little  good,  and  pleading  for  their  Body  of  Sin 
and  Death,  and  Imperfections  to  the  Grave ; 
that  there  they  may  be  all  buried  in  the  Pit 
together,  where  there  is  no  Repentance  in  the 
Grave,  and  give  a  man  Ten  or  Twenty  Shillings 
to  preach  them  a  Funeral  Sermon :  And  as  it 
is  in  Heh7\  ix.  27-     It  is  appointed  unto  all 


GEORGE  FOX  225 

men,  that  they  should  once  dyey  and  after  that 
come  to  Judgment.  And  therefore  consider  and 
mark  this,  and  quench  not  the  Spirit  which 
God  hath  given  you  to  profit  withal ;  and  do 
not  resist  the  Holy  Ghost,  which  Christ  hath 
sent  to  lead  you  into  all  Truth,  and  to  reprove 
you ;  and  hate  not  the  Light  which  Christ  hath 
enlightened  you  withal,  that  you  may  believe  in 
it,  and  walk  in  it,  that  you  may  become 
Children  of  the  Light,  lest  it  be  your  Con- 
demnation :  For  is  not  the  Light  sufficient  to 
lead  you,  and  guide  you,  and  rule  you,  and  to 
give  you  the  Knowledge  of  the  Glory  of  God 
in  the  Face  of  Christ  Jesus  ?  And  is  not  that 
the  Treasure  which  the  Saints  had  in  their 
earthen  Vessels,  that  the  Excellency  of  the 
Power  might  be  of  God,  and  not  of  us,  2  Cor, 
iv.  And  rebel  not  against  the  Spirit,  which 
God  hath  given  you  to  instruct  you,  and  to 
know  the  things  of  God  by  and  that  in  the 
spirit  you  may  have  Fellowship  with  the 
Saints :  For  if  you  rebel  against  his  Good 
Spirit,  what  are  all  your  Fellowships  good  for  ? 
and  is  not  God's  Spirit  sufficient  ?  doth  not 
Christ  say.  It  is  the  Spirit  of  the  Father,  that 
speaks  in  you  ?  and  is  not  that  sufficient  to 
rule  and  to  guide,  and  to  serve  and  worship 
God  in,  in  Spirit  and  Truth. 


226  GEORGE  FOX 

And  did  not  the  Apostle  say  in  Rom.  i.  9, 
that  he  served  God  in  the  Spirit  And  is  it  not 
the  Duty  of  all  Christians,  to  serve  God  in  the 
Spirit?  And  is  not  that  a  sufficient  Rule 
that  will  teach  them  to  know  how  to  serve  God 
(to  wit,  his  holy  spirit)  by  which  Spirit  they 
may  know  God,  and  Christ,  and  the  Scriptures, 
and  know  one  another  in  the  Spirit,  and  in  it 
have  Fellowship,  and  so  keep  the  Unity  of  the 
Spirit,  the  Bond  of  Peace,  yea,  the  Bond  of  the 
Prince  of  Princes,  King  of  Kings,  and  Lord  of 
Lords  Peace,  which  none  can  take  away  from 
them? 

And  doth  not  Christ  say.  They  that  worship 
the  Father,  must  worship  him  in  Spirit  and  in 
Truth  ?  And  is  not  that  a  sufficient  Rule,  to 
worship  him  in,  the  Grace  of  God,  which  brings 
Salvation,  which  teacheth  the  Saints?  is  not 
this  a  sufficient  Rule  to  teach  and  to  establish 
the  Heart,  and  season  thy  Words,  and  bring 
Salvation. 

And  the  Apostle  saith,  Rom.  viii.  26.  Like- 
wise the  Spirit  also  helpeth  our  Infirmities.  So 
is  not  the  Spirit  sufficient,  that  helps  Peoples 
Infirmities  ?  And  the  Spirit  it  self  makes 
Intercession. 

And  in  Gal.  v.  16.  /  say,  walk  in  the  Spirit, 
and  ye  shall  not  fulfil  the  Lusts  of  the  Flesh. 


GEORGE  FOX  227 

And  is  not  this  a  sufficient  Rule  for  People  to 
walk  by  ? 

And  the  Apostle  saith  in  Gal  ii.  19,  20. 
For  I  through  the  Law  am  dead  to  the  Law, 
that  I  might  live  unto  God  ;  I  am  crucified  with 
Christ,  nevertheless  I  live,  yet  not  I,  hut  Christ 
liveth  in  me ;  and  the  Life  that  I  now  live  in 
the  Flesh,  I  live  by  the  Faith  of  the  Son  of  God, 
ivho  loved  me,  and  gave  himself  for  me,  [Mark] 
This  should  be  every  Christian's  Life  and 
Living. 

Worcester  Prison,  the 

9th  day  of  the  Uth  GEORGE  FOX. 

Moneth,  1674. 

For  obeying  the  Command  of  Christ  and  the 
Apostle  James  his  Doctrine,  who  say.  Swear  not 
at  all,  Mat.  v.  Jam.  v. 

♦  *  -H-  *  * 

[Title-page  of  a  pamphlet  by  Whitehead  the  Quaker, 
which  only  contains  26  2^<^9^^'^> 

The 

Path  of  the  Just  Cleaked  ; 

and 

Cruelty  and  Tyranny  laid  Open. 

Or  a  few  Words  to  you  Priests 

and  Magistrates  of  this  nation 

(who  say  we  deny  the  Scriptures,  and  that  we  are 

Antichrists  and  Deceivers,  and  that  we  deny  the 

Word  of  God.) 


228  GEORGE  FOX 

Wherein  your  Oppression  and  Tyranny  is  laid 
Open,  which  by  you  is  unjustly  acted  against  the 
Servants  of  the  Living  God,  who  by  the  World 
which  hate  the  Light  of  Christ,  are  in  Derision 
called  Quakers. 

Wherein  also  is  something  declared  both  to 
Judge  and  Justices  so  called,  concerning  Contempt 
of  Authority. 

Also  the  Ground  and  Cause  of  the  Imprisonment 
of  George  Whitehead  and  John  Harwood,  who  are 
Sufferers  for  the  Innocent  Truth's  sake,  in  the  Goal 
of  Bury  in  Suffolk. 

Also  a  Copy  of  a  Paper,  which  a  Servant  of  the 
Lord,  called  Richard  Clayton,  was  moved  to  set 
upon  a  Steeple-house  Door  at  Buinj  in  Suffolk,  for 
which  he  was  caused  to  be  whipped  by  one  Thomas 
Waldegrave,  Justice  of  Peace  in  the  said  County. 

But  though  handjoyn  in  hand,  the  ivicked  shall  not 
he  uniJunished  ;  hut  the  Seedj  of  the  Righteous  shall  he 
delivered.     Prov.  xi.  21. 

From  the  Spirit  of  the  Living  God  in  me,  whose 
name  in  the  flesh  is  George  Whitehead,  who  for 
Sion's  sake  cannot  hold  my  peace,  but  testifie 
against  her  Oppressors  :  who  am  a  Sufferer  as 
aforesaid,  the  4  day  of  the  7  month,  1655. 

Also  a  Paper  against  the  Sin  of  Idleness,  which 
we  declare  against,  and  live  out  of ;  and  are  dili- 
gent serving  the  Lord,  though  that  sin  be  cast 
upon  us,  yet  it  we  deny,  with  all  other  sins  and 
ungodlinesses,  which  is  contrary  to  the  Gospel  of 
Christ. 

London,  Printed  for  Giles  Colvert,  at  the  Black- 
Spread-Eagle,  near  the  West  End  of  Raid's,  1655. 


XII 
HALIFAX 

[George  Savile,  Marquis  of  Halifax  (c.  1630-1695) 
was  one  of  the  first  statesmen  of  his  time,  and  his 
pamphlets  entitle  him  to  a  place  among  English 
classics.  Raised  to  the  peerage  for  his  assistance 
in  bringing  about  the  Restoration,  he  had  been 
dismissed  from  the  Lord  Presidency  of  the  Council 
two  years  before  the  appearance  of  the  Letter  to  a 
Dissenter,  for  his  strenuous  opposition  to  the  repeal 
of  the  Test  Act.  Two  years  afterwards  it  was 
he  who  was  chosen  to  present  the  Crown  to 
William  III. 

James  11.  in  1687  issued  the  Declaration  of 
Indulgence,  the  object  of  which  was  to  remove  all 
the  disabilities  under  which  Roman  Catholics 
suffered.  In  order  to  win  support  for  his  measure 
the  King  included  in  the  Declaration  all  moderate 
Presbyterians  and  Quakers.  The  balance  of  power 
thus  lay  with  the  Dissenters.  If  they  were  tempted 
by  the  promise  of  toleration  to  side  with  the  King, 
he  would  probably  have  been  strong  enough  to 
carry  his  way.  The  Dissenters,  who  had  been 
treated  with  especial  severity  since  the  fall  of 
Shaftesbury  in  1681,  suddenly  found  themselves 
courted  on  all  sides  :  at  first  some  of  them  wavered, 
but  in  the  end  their  fear  and  hatred  of  Romanism 

229 


230  HALIFAX 

overcame  all  else,  and  they  sided  with  the  Church 
and  the  people  against  James'  toleration.  Halifax's 
Letter  had  a  large  share  in  this  result.  Its  effect 
was  immense  ;  over  20,000  copies  were  circulated 
by  the  post,  and  thus  it  told  in  every  corner  of  the 
Kingdom.  Twenty-four  answers  were  published 
to  the  Letter^  "  but  the  town  pronounced  that  they 
were  all  bad."  The  Government  was  greatly  irritated 
at  the  success  of  the  tract,  and  spared  no  pains  to 
discover  its  author.  Some  fancied  they  recognised 
the  style  of  Sir  William  Temple.  "  But  in  truth," 
says  Macaulay,  "that  amplitude  and  acuteness  of 
intellect,  that  vivacity  of  fancy,  that  terse  and 
energetic  style,  that  placid  dignity,  half  courtly 
half  philosophical,  which  the  utmost  excitement  of 
conflict  could  not  for  a  moment  derange,  belonged 
to  Halifax,  and  to  Halifax  alone." 

"In  this  masterly  little  tract,"  continues  Mac- 
aulay, "  all  the  arguments  which  could  convince  a 
nonconformist  that  it  was  his  duty  and  his  interest 
to  prefer  an  alliance  with  the  Church  to  an  alliance 
with  the  Court,  were  condensed  into  the  smallest 
compass,  arranged  in  the  most  perspicuous  order, 
illustrated  with  lively  wit,  and  enforced  by  an 
eloquence  earnest  indeed,  yet  never  in  its  utmost 
vehemence  trangressing  the  limits  of  exact  good 
sense  and  good  breeding."  Mackintosh,  in  his 
History  of  the  Revolution^  calls  it  the  most  perfect 
model  of  a  political  tract.  "Although  its  whole 
argument,"  he  says,  "unbroken  by  diversion  to 
general  topics,  is  brought  exclusively  to  bear  with 
concentrated  force  upon  the  question,  the  parties, 
and  the  moment,  it  cannot  be  read  after  an  interval 
of  a  century  and  a  half  without  admiration  of  its 
acuteness,  address,  terseness,  and  poignancy."] 


HALIFAX  231 

A 

LETTER 

TO  A 

DISSENTER, 

upon  occasion  of 

His  Majesties 

Late  Gracious 

Declaration 

of 
Indulgence. 

London : 
Printed  for  G.  H.     1687. 

Sir, 

Since  Addresses   are   in  fashion,  give 

me  leave  to  make  one  to  you.     This  is  neither 

the  effect  of  Fear,  Interest,  or  Resentment; 

therefore   you  may  be  sure  it  is  sincere :  and 

for  that  reason   it  may  expect  to  be  kindly 

received.     Whether  it  will  have  power  enough 

to   Convince,   dependeth   upon    the    Reasons, 

of  which  you   are   to  judge ;  and  upon  your 

preparation    of    Mind,    to    be    persuaded    by 

Truth,   whenever    it    appeareth    to    you.      It 

ought   not  to  be  the  less  welcom,  for  coming 

from  a  friendly  hand,  one  whose  kindness  to 

you  is  not  lessened  by  difference  of  Opinion, 


232  HALIFAX 

and  who  will  not  let  his  thoughts  for  the 
Publick  be  so  tyed  or  confined  to  this  or  that 
Sub-division  of  Protestants,  as  to  stifle  the 
Charity,  which  besides  all  other  Arguments, 
is  at  this  time  become  necessary  to  preserve 
us. 

I  am  neither  surprized  nor  provoked,  to 
see  that  in  the  condition  you  were  put  into 
by  the  Laws,  and  the  ill  circumstances  you  lay 
under,  by  having  the  Exclusion  and  Rebellion 
laid  to  your  Charge,  you  were  desirous  to 
make  your  selves  less  uneasie  and  obnoxious 
to  Authority.  Men  who  are  sore,  run  to  the 
nearest  Remedy  with  too  much  haste,  to  con- 
sider all  the  consequences :  Grains  of  allowance 
are  to  be  given,  where  Nature  giveth  such 
strong  Influences.  When  to  men  under  suffer- 
ings it  off'ereth  Ease,  the  present  Pain  will 
hardly  allow  time  to  examine  the  Remedies ; 
and  the  strongest  Reason  can  hardly  gain  a 
fair  Audience  from  our  Mind,  whilst  so  pos- 
sessed, till  the  smart  is  a  little  allayed. 

I  do  not  know  whether  the  warmth  that 
naturally  belongeth  to  new  Friendship's,  may 
not  make  it  a  harder  task  for  me  to  perswade 
you.  It  is  like  telling  Lovers,  in  the  beginning 
of  their  Joys,  that  they  will  in  a  little  time 
have  an  end.     Such  an  unwelcome  style  doth 


HALIFAX 


233 


not  easily  find  credit :  but  I  will  suppose  you 
are  not  so  far  gone  in  your  new  Passion,  but 
that  you  will  hear  still ;  and  therefore  I  am 
under  the  less  discouragement,  when  I  offer  to 
your  consideration  two  things.  The  first  is, 
the  cause  you  have  to  suspect  your  new 
Friends.  The  second,  the  Duty  incumbent 
upon  you,  in  Christianity  and  Prudence,  not 
to  hazard  the  publick  safety,  neither  by  desire 
or  Ease,  nor  of  Revenge. 

To  the  first :  Consider  that  notwithstanding 
the  smooth  Language  which  is  now  put  on  to 
engage  you,  these  new  Friends  did  not  make 
you  their  Choice,  but  their  Refuge :  They  have 
ever  made  their  first  Courtships  to  the  Church 
of  England,  and  when  they  were  rejected  there, 
they  made  their  Application  to  you  in  the 
second  place.  The  Instances  of  this,  might 
be  given  in  all  times.  I  do  not  repeat  them, 
because  whatsoever  is  unnecessary,  must  be 
tedious,  the  truth  of  this  Assertion  being  so 
plain,  as  not  to  admit  a  dispute.  You  cannot 
therefore  reasonably  flatter  your  selves,  that 
there  is  any  Inclination  to  you.  They  never 
pretended  to  allow  you  any  Quarter,  but  to 
usher  in  Liberty  for  themselves  under  that 
shelter.  I  refer  you  to  Mr  Coleman  s  Letters, 
and  to  the  Journals  of  Parliament,  where  you 


2  34  HALIFAX 

may  be  convinced,  if  you  can  be  so  mistaken, 
as  to  doubt ;  nay,  at  this  very  hour,  they  can 
hardly  forbear,  in  the  height  of  their  Courtship, 
to  let  fall  hard  words  of  you.  So  little  is 
Nature  to  be  restrained ;  it  will  start  out 
sometimes,  disdaining  to  submit  to  the  Usurpa- 
tion of  Art  and  Interest. 

This  alliance,  between  Liberty  and  Infalli- 
hility,  is  bringing  together  the  Two  most 
contrary  things  that  are  in  the  World.  The 
Church  of  Rome  doth  not  onely  dislike  the 
allowing  Liberty,  but  by  its  Principles  it  can- 
not do  it.  Wine  is  not  more  expresly  for- 
bidden to  the  Mahometans,  then  giving  Here- 
ticks  Liberty  is  to  Papists :  They  are  no  more 
able  to  make  good  their  Vows  to  you,  then 
men  married  before,  and  their  wife  alive,  can 
conform  their  Contract  mth  another.  The 
Continuance  of  their  kindness,  would  be  a 
habit  of  Sin,  of  which  they  are  to  repent, 
and  their  Absolution  is  to  be  had  upon  no 
other  terms,  than  their  Promise  to  destroy 
you.  You  are  therefore  to  be  hugged  now, 
onely  that  you  may  be  the  better  squeezed 
at  another  time.  There  must  be  something 
Extraordinary,  when  the  Church  of  Rome 
setteth  up  Bills ;  and  offereth  Plaisters,  for 
tender  consciences  ;  By  all  that  hath  hitherto 


HALIFAX 


235 


appeared,  her  skill  in  chirurgery  lyeth  chiefly 
in  a  quick  Hand,  to  cut  off  Limbs  ;  but  she 
is  the  worst  at  Healing,  of  any  that  ever  pre- 
tended to  it. 

To  come  so  quick  from  another  extream,  is 
such  an  unnatural  motion,  that  you  ought  to 
be  upon  your  guard ;  the  other  day  you  were 
Sons  of  Belial,  Now,  you  are  Angels  of  j Light. 
This  is  a  violent  change,  and  it  will  be  fit  for 
you  to  pause  upon  it,  before  you  beheve  it : 
If  your  features  are  not  altered,  neither  is  their 
opinion  of  you,  what  ever  may  be  pretended. 
Do  you  believe  less  than  you  did,  that  there  is 
Idolatry  in  the  Church  of  Borne  ?  sure  you  do 
not.  See  then,  how  they  treat  both  in  Words 
and  writmg,  those  who  entertain  that  opinion. 
Conclude  from  hence,  how  inconsistant  their 
favour  is  with  this  single  Article,  except  they 
give  you  a  Dispensation  for  this  too,  and  by  a 
Non  Obstante,  secure  you  that  they  will  not 
think  the  worse  of  you. 

Think  a  httle  how  dangerous  it  is  to  build 
upon  a  Foundation  of  Paradoxes.  Popery 
now  is  the  only  friend  to  Liberty,  and  the 
known  enemy  to  Persecution :  The  men  of 
Taunton  and    Tiverton,^  are   above   all   other 

^  These  towns  had  been  Centres  of  Monmouth's  rebellion 
in  1685. 


236  HALIFAX 

eminent  for  Loyalty.  The  Quakers  from  being 
declared  by  the  Papists  not  to  be  Christians, 
are  now  made  Favourites  ^  and  taken  into  their 
particular  Protection  ;  they  are  on  a  sudden 
grown  the  most  Accomplished  men  of  the 
Kingdom,  in  good  Breeding,  and  give  Thanks 
mth  the  best  Grace,  in  double  refined 
Language.  So  that  I  should  not  wonder, 
though  a  man  of  that  Perswasion,  in  spite  of 
his  Hat,  should  be  Master  of  the  Ceremonies. 
Not  to  say  harsher  words,  these  are  such  very 
new  things,  that  it  is  impossible  not  to  suspend 
our  belief,  till  by  a  little  more  Experience  we 
may  be  inform'd  whether  they  are  Realities 
or  Apparitions  :  We  have  been  under  shame- 
ful mistakes,  if  these  Opinions  are  true  ;  but  for 
the  present,  we  are  apt  to  be  incredulous ; 
except  we  could  be  convinced,  that  the  Priests 
words  in  this  Case  too,  are  able  to  make  such  a 
sudden,  and  effectual  change ;  and  that  their 
Power  is  not  limited  to  the  Sacrament,  but 
that  it  extendeth  to  alter  the  nature  of  all 
other  things,  as  often  as  they  are  so  disposed. 

Let  me  now  speak  of  the  Instruments  of 
your  Friendship,  and  then  leave  you  to  judge, 
whether  they  do  not  afibrd  matter  of  Suspi- 
tion.     No  Sharpness  is  to  be  mingled  where 

1  Penn  is  here  attacked  under  a  very  thin  disguise. 


HALIFAX  237 

Healing  only  is  intended ;  so  nothing  will  be 
said  to  expose  particular  men,  how  strong 
soever  the  Temptation  may  be,  or  how  clear 
the  Proofs  to  make  it  out.  A  word  or  two 
in  general,  for  your  better  caution,  shall  suffice  : 
Suppose  then,  for  Argument's  sake,  that  the 
Mediators  of  this  new  Alliance,  should  be  such 
as  have  been  formerly  employed  in  Treaties  of 
the  same  kinde,  and  there  detected  to  have 
Acted  by  Order,  and  to  have  been  Impowered 
to  give  Encouragements  and  Rewards.  Would 
not  this  be  an  argument  to  suspect  them  ? 

If  they  should  plainly  be  under  Engagements 
to  one  side,  their  Arguments  to  the  other,  ought 
to  be  received  accordingly ;  their  fair  Pretences 
are  to  be  looked  upon  as  a  part  of  their  Com- 
mission, which  may  not  improbably  give  them 
a  Dispensation  in  the  case  of  Truth,  when  it 
may  bring  a  prejudice  upon  the  Service  of  those 
by  whom  they  are  employed. 

If  there  should  be  men  who  having  fomierly 
had  Means  and  Authority  to  perswade  by 
Secular  Arguments,  have  in  pursuance  of  that 
Power,  sprinkled  Money  amongst  the  Dissent- 
ing Ministers  ;  and  if  those  very  men  should 
now  have  the  same  Authority,  practice  the 
same  Methods,  and  Disburse,  where  they  can- 
not otherwise  perswade :  It  seemeth  to  me  to 


238  HALIFAX 

be  rather  an  Evidence  than  a  Presumption  of 
the  Deceit. 

If  there  should  be  Ministers  amongst  you, 
who  by  having  fallen  under  Temptations  of  this 
kinde,  are  in  some  sort  engaged  to  continue  their 
Frailty,  by  the  awe  they  are  in  lest  it  should 
be  exposed  :  The  perswasions  of  these  unfortun- 
ate men  must  sure  have  the  less  force,  and  their 
Arguments,  though  never  so  specious,  are  to  be 
suspected,  when  they  come  from  men  who  have 
Mortojag^ed  themselves  to  severe  Creditors  that 
expect  a  rigorous  observation  of  the  Contract, 
let  it  be  never  so  unwarrantable. 

If  these,  or  any  others,  should  at  this  time 
Preach  up  Anger  and  Vengeance  against  the 
Church  of  England ;  may  it  not  without  In- 
justice be  suspected,  that  a  thing  so  plainly  out 
of  season,  springeth  rather  from  Corruption 
than  Mistake ;  and  that  those  who  act  this 
Cholerick  part,  do  not  believe  themselves, 
but  onely  pursue  higher  Directions,  endeavour 
to  make  good  that  part  of  their  Contract 
which  obligeth  them,  upon  a  Forfeiture,  to  make 
use  of  their  inflaming  Eloquence  ?  They 
might  apprehend  their  Wages  would  be  re- 
trenched if  they  should  be  Moderate:  And 
therefore  whilst  Violence  is  their  Interest, 
those   who    have    not    the    same   Arguments, 


HALIFAX  239 

have  no  reason  to  follow  such  a  Partial 
Example. 

If  there  should  be  men  who  by  the  load  of 
their  Crimes,  against  the  Government  have  been 
bowed  down  to  comply  with  it  against  their 
Conscience ;  who  by  incurring  the  want  of  a 
pardon,  have  drawn  upon  themselves  the 
necessity  of  an  intire  Resignation :  Such  men 
are  to  be  lamented,  but  not  to  be  believed. 
Nay,  they  themselves,  w^hen  they  have  dis- 
charged their  Unwelcome  Task,  will  be  in- 
wardly glad  that  their  forced  Endeavours  do 
not  succeed,  and  are  pleased  when  men  resist 
their  Insinuations ;  which  are  far  from  being 
Voluntary  or  Sincere,  but  are  Squeezed  out 
of  them  by  the  w^eight  of  their  being  so 
Obnoxious. 

If  in  the  height  of  this  great  dearness  by 
comparing  things,  it  should  happen,  that  at 
this  instant,  there  is  much  a  surer  Friendship 
wdth  those  w^ho  are  so  far  from  allowing 
Liberty,  that  they  allow  no  Living  to  a  Pro- 
testant under  them.  Let  the  Scene  lie  in  what 
part  of  the  World  it  will,  the  Argument  will 
come  home,  and  sure  it  will  afford  sufficient 
ground  to  suspect.  Apparent  Contradictions 
must  strike  us ;  neither  Nature  nor  Reason  can 
digest  them :  Self-Flattery,  and  the  desire  to 


240  HALIFAX 

Deceive  our  selves,  to  gratifie  a  present  Appe- 
tite, with  all  their  Power,  which  is  Great,  can- 
not get  the  better  of  such  broad  Conviction,  as 
some  things  carry  along  with  them.  Will  you 
call  these  vain  and  empty  Suspitions  ?  have  you 
been  at  all  times  so  void  of  Fears  and  Jealousies 
as  to  justifie  your  being  so  unreasonably  Valiant 
in  having  none  upon  this  occasion  ?  Such  an 
extraordinary  Courage  at  this  unseasonable 
time,  to  say  no  more,  is  too  dangerous  a  Virtue 
to  be  commended. 

If  then  for  these  and  a  thousand  other 
Reasons,  there  is  cause  to  suspect,  sure  your 
new  Friends  are  not  to  Dictate  to  you,  or 
advise  you ;  for  instance.  The  Addresses  that 
fly  abroad  every  week;  and  Murther  us  with 
another  to  the  same;  the  first  Draughts  are 
made  by  those  who  are  not  very  proper  to  be 
Secretaries  to  the  Protestant  Religion ;  and  it 
is  your  part  onely  to  Write  them  out  fairer  again. 
Strange !  that  you  who  have  been  formerly  so 
much  against  Set  Forms,  should  now  be  content 
the  Priests  should  Indite  for  you.  The  nature 
of  Thanks  is  an  unavoidable  consequence  of 
being  Pleased  or  Obliged;  they  grow ^ in  the 
Heart  and  from  thence  shew  themselves  either 
in  Looks,  Speech,  Writing,  or  Action  :  No  man 
was  ever  Thankful  because  he  was  bid  to  be  so, 


HALIFAX  241 

but  because  he  had,  or  thought  he  had  some 
Reason  for  it.  If  then  there  is  cause  in  this 
Case  to  pay  such  Extravagant  Acknowledg- 
ments, they  will  flow  naturally,  without  taking 
such  pains  to  procure  them  ;  and  it  is  unkindly 
done  to  Tke  all  the  Post-Horses  with  carrying 
Circular  Letters  to  solicit  that  which  would  be 
done  without  any  trouble  or  constraint  :  If  it  is 
really  in  it  self  such  a  Favour,  what  needeth 
so  much  pressing  men  to  be  Thankful,  and  with 
such  eager  circumstances,  that  where  Per- 
swasions  cannot  delude,  Threatenings  are  em- 
ployed to  fright  them  into  a  Compliance? 
Thanks  must  be  voluntary,  not  only  uncon- 
strained, but  unsollicited,  else  they  are  either 
Trifles  or  Snares,  they  either  signifie  nothing,  or 
a  great  deal  more  than  is  intended  by  those 
that  give  them.  If  an  Interference  should  be 
made.  That  whosoever  Thanketh  the  King  for 
his  Declaration,  is  by  that  engaged  to  lustifie 
it  in  point  of  Law ;  it  is  a  greater  Stride  than, 
I  presume,  all  those  care  to  make  who  are 
perswaded  to  Address  :  If  it  shall  be  supposed, 
that  all  the  Thankers  will  be  Repealers  of 
the  TEST,  whenever  a  Parliament  shall  Meet. 
Such  an  Expectation  is  better  prevented  before, 
than  disappointed  afterwards ;  and  the  surest 
way  to  avoid  the  lying  under  such  a  Scandal,  is 


242  HALIFAX 

not  to  do  anything  that  may  give  a  coloui* 
to  the  Mistake :  These  Bespoken  Tlianks  are 
little  less  improper  than  Love  Letters  that  were 
SoUicited  by  the  Lady  to  whom  they  are  to  be 
Directed :  so,  that  besides  the  little  ground 
there  is  to  give  them,  the  manner  of  getting 
them,  doth  extreamly  lessen  their  Value.  It 
might  be  wished  that  you  would  have  sup- 
pressed your  impatience,  and  have  been  content 
for  the  sake  of  ReUgion,  to  enjoy  it  within  your 
selves,  mthout  the  Liberty  of  a  publick  Exer- 
cise, till  a  Parliament  had  allowed  it ;  but  since 
that  could  not  be,  and  that  the  Artifices  of 
some  amongst  you  have  made  use  of  the  Well- 
meant  Zeal  of  the  Generality  to  draw  them  into 
this  Mistake ;  I  am  so  far  from  blaming  you 
with  that  sharpness  which,  perhaps,  the  Matter 
in  strictness  would  bear,  that  I  am  ready  to  err 
on  the  side  of  the  more  gentle  construction. 

There  is  a  great  difference  between  enjoying 
quietly  the  advantages  of  an  Act  irregularly 
done  by  others,  and  the  going  about  to  support 
it  against  the  Laws  in  being :  The  Law  is  so 
Sacred,  that  no  Trespass  against  it  is  to  be 
Defended ;  yet  Frailties  may  in  some  measure 
be  Excused,  when  they  cannot  be  Justified. 
The  desire  of  enjoying  a  Liberty  from  which 
men   have   been   so   long    restrained,   may  be 


HALIFAX  243 

a  Temptation  that  their  Reason  is  not  at  all 
times  able  to  resist.  If  in  such  a  case,  some 
Objections  are  left  over,  indifferent  men  will 
be  more  inclined  to  lament  the  Occasion,  than 
to  fall  too  hard  upon  the  Fault,  whilst  it  is 
covered  with  the  Apology  of  a  good  Intention ; 
but  where  to  rescue  your  selves  from  the 
Severity  of  one  Law,  you  give  a  Blow  to  all 
the  Laws,  by  which  your  ReUgion  and  Liberty 
are  to  be  protected;  and  instead  of  silently 
receiving  the  benefit  of  this  Indulgence,  you 
set  up  for  Advocates  to  support  it,  you  become 
voluntary  Aggressors,  and  looke  like  Counsel 
retained  by  the  Prerogative  against  your  old 
Friend  Magna  Charta,  who  hath  done  nothing 
to  deserve  her  falling  thus  under  your  Dis- 
pleasure. 

If  the  case  then  should  be,  that  the  Price 
expected  from  you  for  this  Liberty,  is  giving  up 
your  Right  in  the  Laws,  sure  you  will  think 
twice,  before  you  go  any  further  in  such  a 
losing  Bargain.  After  giving  Thanks  for  the 
breach  of  one  Law,  you  lose  the  Right  of 
Complaining  of  the  breach  of  all  the  rest; 
you  will  not  very  well  know  how  to  defend 
your  selves,  when  you  are  pressed ;  and  having 
given  up  the  Question,  when  it  was  for  your 
advantage,  you  cannot  recall  it,  when  it  shall 


244 


HALIFAX 


be  to  your  prejudice.  If  you  will  set  up  at  one 
time  a  Power  to  help  you,  which  at  another 
time  by  parity  of  Reason  shall  be  made  use  of 
to  destroy  you,  you  will  neither  be  pitied,  nor 
relieved  against  a  Mischief  you  draw  upon 
your  selves,  by  being  so  unreasonably  thankful. 
It  is  like  calling  in  Auxiliaries  to  help,  who  are 
strong  enough  to  subdue  you :  In  such  a  case 
your  Complaints  will  come  too  late  to  be  heard, 
and  your  Sufferings  wiU  raise  Mirth  instead  of 
Compassion. 

If  you  think,  for  your  excuse,  to  expound 
your  Thanks  so  as  to  restrain  them  to  this 
particular  case,  others,  for  their  ends,  will 
extend  them  further ;  and  in  these  differing 
Interpretations,  that  which  is  back'd  by 
Authority  will  be  the  most  likely  to  prevail ; 
especially  when  by  the  advantage  you  have 
given  them,  they  have  in  truth  the  better  of 
the  Argument,  and  that  the  Inferences  from 
your  own  Concessions  are  very  strong,  and 
express  against  you.  This  is  so  far  from  being 
a  groundless  Supposition,  that  there  was  a 
late  instance  of  it,  the  last  Session  of  Parha- 
ment,  in  the  House  of  Lords,  where  the  first 
Thanks,  though  things  of  course,  were  inter- 
preted to  be  the  Approbation  of  the  King's 
whole  Speech,  and  a  Restraint  from  the  further 


HALIFAX  245 

Examination  of  any  part  of  it,  though  never 
so  much  disliked;  and  it  was  with  difficulty 
obtained,  not  to  be  excluded  from  the  liberty 
of  objecting  to  this  mighty  Prerogative  of  Dis- 
pensing meerly  by  this  innocent  and  usual  piece 
of  good  Manners,  by  which  no  such  thing  could 
possibly  be  intended.^ 

This  sheweth,  that  some  bounds  are  to  be  put 
to  your  good  Breeding,  and  that  the  Constitu- 
tion of  England  is  too  valuable  a  thing  to  be 
ventured  upon  a  Complement.  Now  that  you 
have  for  some  time  enjoyed  the  benefit  of  the 
End,  it  is  time  for  you  to  look  into  the  Danger 
of  the  Means :  The  same  Reason  that  made 
you  desirous  to  get  Liberty,  must  make  you 
solicitous  to  preserve  it :  so  that  the  next 
thought  will  naturally  be,  not  to  engage  your 
self  beyond  Retreat,  and  to  agi'ee  so  far  with 
the  Principles  of  all  Rehgions,  as  not  to  rely 
upon  a  Deathbed  Repentance. 

There  are  certain  Periods  of  time,  which 
being  once  past,  make  all  Cautions  ineffectual, 
and  all  Remedies  desperate.  Our  Understand- 
ings are  apt  to  be  hurried  on  by  the  first  heats  ; 
which,  if  not  restrained  in  time,  do  not  give 

1  Halifax  himself  spoke  against  the  repeal  of  the  Test 
Act  on  this  occasion  (1686),  and  both  houses  were  at 
once  prorogued. 


246  HALIFAX 

us  leave  to  look  back,  till  it  is  too  late. 
Consider  this  in  the  Case  of  your  Anger  against 
the  Church  of  England,  and  take  warning  by 
their  Mistake  in  the  same  kind,  when  after  the 
late  King's  Restoration,  they  preserved  so  long 
the  bitter  taste  of  your  rough  usage  to  them  in 
other  times,  that  it  made  them  forget  their 
Interest,  and  sacrifice  it  to  their  Revenge. 

Either  you  will  blame  this  Proceeding  in 
them,  and  for  that  reason  not  follow  it,  or  if 
you  allow  it,  you  have  no  reason  to  be  offended 
with  them  ;  so  that  you  must  either  dismiss  your 
Anger,  or  lose  your  Excuse  ;  except  you  should 
argue  more  partially  than  will  be  supposed  of 
Men  of  your  Morality  and  Understanding. 

If  you  had  now  to  do  with  those  Rigid 
Prelates,  who  made  it  a  Matter  of  Conscience 
to  give  you  the  least  Indulgence,  but  kept  you 
at  an  uncharitable  distance,  and  even  to  your 
more  reasonable  Scruples  continued  and  ex- 
orable,  the  Argument  might  be  fairer  on  your 
side,  but  since  the  common  Danger  hath  so 
laid  open  that  Mistake,  that  all  the  former 
Haughtiness  towards  you  is  for  ever  ex- 
tinguish'd,  and  that  it  hath  turned  the  Spirit  of 
Persecution,  into  a  Spirit  of  Peace,  Charity  and 
Condescension;  shall  this  happy  Change  only 
affect  the  Church  of  England  ?    And  are  you 


HALIFAX  247 

so  ill  love  with  Separation,  as  not  to  be  moved 
by  this  Example?  It  ought  to  be  followed, 
were  there  no  other  reason  than  that  it  is  a 
Vertue;  but  when  besides  that,  it  is  become 
necessary  to  your  preservation,  it  is  impossible 
to  fail  the  having  its  Effect  upon  you. 

If  it  should  be  said,  that  the  Church  of 
England,  is  never  Humble,  but  when  she  is  out 
of  Power,  and  therefore  loseth  the  Right  of 
being  Believed  when  she  pretendeth  to  it ;  the 
Answer  is,  first,  it  would  be  an  uncharitable 
Objection,  and  very  much  miss-timed?  an 
unseasonable  Triumph,  not  only  ungenerous, 
but  unsafe  :  So  that  in  these  respects  it  cannot 
be  urged,  without  Scandal,  even  though  it 
could  be  said  with  Truth.  SecondJij,  This  is  not 
so  in  Fact,  and  the  Argument  must  fall,  being 
built  upon  a  false  Foundation;  for  whatever 
may  be  told  you,  at  this  very  hour,  and  in  the 
heat  and  glare  of  your  present  Sun-shine,  the 
Church  of  England  can  in  a  moment  bring 
Clouds  again;  and  turn  the  Royal  Thunder 
upon  your  Heads,  blow  you  off  the  Stage  with 
a  Breath,  if  she  would  give  but  a  Smile  or  a 
kind  Word  ;  the  least  Glimpse  of  her  Comply- 
ance,  would  throw  you  back  into  the  state  of 
Suffering,  and  draw  upon  you  all  the  xirrears  of 
Severity,  which  have  accrued  during  the  time 


248  HALIFAX 

of  this  kindness  to  you,  and  yet  the  Church  of 
England,  mth  all  her  Faults,  will  not  allow  her 
self  to  be  rescued  by  such  unjustifiable  means, 
but  chuseth  to  bear  the  weight  of  Power,  rather 
than  lie  under  the  burthen  of  being  Criminal. 

It  cannot  be  said,  that  she  is  unprovoked ; 
Books  and  Letters  come  out  every  day,  to  caU 
for  Answers,  yet  she  will  not  be  stirred.  From 
the  supposed  Authors  and  the  Stile  one  would 
swear  they  were  Undertakers,  and  had  made  a 
Contract  to  fall  out  with  the  Church  of  Eng- 
land, There  are  Lashes  in  every  Address, 
Challenges  to  draw  the  Pen  in  every  Pamphlet; 
in  short,  the  fairest  occasions  in  the  World 
given  to  quarrel ;  but  she  wisely  distinguisheth 
between  the  Body  of  Dissenters,  whom  she  will 
suppose  to  Act,  as  they  do,  with  no  ill  intent ; 
and  these  small  Skii-mishers  pickt  and  sent  out 
to  Picqueer,^  and  to  begin  a  Fray  amongst  the 
Protestants,  for  the  entertainment,  as  well  as 
the  advantage  of  the  Church  of  Rome. 

This  Conduct  is  so  good,  that  it  will  be 
Scandalous  not  to  Applaud  it.  It  is  not  equal 
dealing,  to  blame  our  Adversaries  for  doing  ill, 
and  not  commend  them  when  they  do  well. 

To  hate  them  because  they  Persecuted,  and 
not  to  be  reconciled  to  them  when  they  are 

1  To  skirmish. 


HALIFAX  249 

ready  to  Suffer,  rather  than  receive  all  the 
Advantages  that  can  be  gained  by  a  Criminal 
Complyance,  is  a  Principle  no  sort  of  Christians 
can  o^vn,  since  it  would  give  an  Objection  to 
them  never  to  be  answered. 

Think  a  little,  who  they  were  that  promoted 
your  former  Persecutions,  and  then  consider 
how  it  will  look  to  be  angry  with  the  Instru- 
ments, and  at  the  same  time  to  make  a  League 
with  the  Authors  of  your  Sufferings. 

Have  you  enough  considered  what  wdll  be 
expected  from  you  ?  Are  you  ready  to  stand  in 
every  Borough  by  a  Virtue  of  a  Conge  cVeslire, 
and  instead  of  Election,  be  satisfied  if  you  are 
returned  ? 

Will  you  in  Parliament,  justifie  the  Dispens- 
ing Power,  with  all  its  consequences,  and  repeal 
the  Test,  by  which  you  ^Y\]\.  make  way  for  the 
Repeal  of  all  the  Laws,  that  were  made  to 
preserve  your  Religion,  and  to  Enact  others 
that  shall  destroy  it  ? 

Are  you  disposed  to  change  the  Liberty  of 
Debate  into  the  Merit  of  Obedience,  and  to  be 
made  Instruments  to  Repeal  or  Enact  Laws, 
when  the  Roman  Consistory  are  Lords  of  the 
Articles. 

Are  you  so  linked  with  your  new  Friends,  as 
to  reject  any  Indulgence  a  Parliament  shall 
Q 


250  HALIFAX 

offer  you,  if  it  shall  not  be  so  Comprehensive  as 
to  include  the  Papists  in  it  ? 

Consider  that  the  implyed  Conditions  of  your 
new  Treaty  are  no  less,  than  that  you  are  to  do 
every  thing  you  are  desired,  without  examining, 
and  that  for  this  pretended  Liberty  of  Con- 
science, your  real  Freedom  is  to  be  Sacrificed  : 
Your  former  Faults  hang  like  Chains  still  about 
you,  you  are  let  loose  only  upon  Bayl ;  the  first 
Act  of  Non-compliance,  sendeth  you  to  jayl 
again. 

You  may  see  that  the  Papists  themselves,  do 
not  rely  upon  the  Legality  of  this  Power,  which 
you  are  to  Justifie,  since  they  being  so  very 
earnest  to  get  it  Established  by  a  Law,  and  the 
doing  such  very  hard  things  in  order,  as  they 
think  to  obtain  it,  is  a  clear  Evidence,  that  they 
do  not  think,  that  the  single  Power  of  the 
Crown  is  in  this  Case  a  good  Foundation ; 
especially  when  this  is  done  under  a  Prince,  so 
very  tender  to  all  the  Rights  of  Soveraignty, 
that  he  would  think  it  a  diminution  to  his  Pre- 
rogative, where  he  conceiveth  it  strong  enough 
to  go  alone,  to  call  in  the  Legislative  help  to 
strengthen  and  support  it. 

You  have  fomierly  blamed  the  Church  of 
England,  and  not  without  reason,  for  going  so 
far  as  they  did  in  their  Compliance  ;  and  yet  as 


HALIFAX  251 

soon  as  they  stopped,  you  see  they  are  not  only 
Deserted,  but  Prosecuted  :  Conclude  then  from 
this  Example,  that  you  must  either  break  off 
your  Friendship,  or  resolve  to  have  no  Bounds 
in  it.  If  they  do  not  succeed  in  their  Design, 
they  will  leave  you  first ;  if  they  do,  you  must 
either  leave  them,  when  it  wiU  be  too  late  for 
your  Safety,  or  else  after  the  squeaziness  of 
starting  at  a  Surplice,  you  must  be  forced  to 
swallow  Transubstantiation. 

Remember  that  the  other  day  those  of  the 
Church  of  England  were  Trimmers  for  endur- 
ing you,  and  now  by  a  sudden  Tm-n,  you  are 
becoming  the  Favourites ;  do  not  deceive  your 
selves,  it  is  not  the  Nature  of  lasting  Plants 
thus  to  shoot  up  in  a  Night ;  you  may  look  gay 
and  green  for  a  little  time,  but  you  want  a  Root 
to  give  you  a  continuance.  It  is  not  so  long 
since,  as  to  be  forgotten,  that  the  Maxim  was. 
It  is  impossible  for  a  Dissenter j  not  to  be  a 
REBEL.  Consider  at  this  time  in  France, 
even  the  new  Converts  are  so  far  from  being 
Imployed,  that  they  are  Disarmed :  their  sud- 
den Change  maketh  them  still  to  be  distrusted, 
notwithstanding  that  they  are  Reconciled  : 
What  are  you  to  expect  then  from  your 
dear  Friends  to  whom,  whenever  they  shall 
think   fit  to  throw  you   off*  again,  you  have 


252  HALIFAX 

in  other  times  given  such  Arguments  for  their 
excuse. 

Besides  all  this,  you  Act  very  unskilfully 
against  your  visible  Interest,  if  you  throw  away 
the  advantages,  of  which  you  can  hardly  fail  in 
the  next  probable  Revolution.^  Things  tend 
naturally  to  what  you  would  have,  if  you  would 
let  them  alone,  and  not  by  an  unreasonable  Activ- 
ity lose  the  Influences  of  your  good  Star,  which 
promiseth  you  every  thing  that  is  prosperous. 

The  Church  of  England  convinced  of  its 
Errour  in  being  Severe  to  you  ;  the  Parliament, 
when  ever  it  meeteth,  sure  to  be  Gentle  to  you ; 
the  next  Heir  ^  bred  in  the  Country  which  you 
have  so  often  Quoted  for  a  Pattern  of  Indulg- 
ence ;  a  general  Agreement  of  all  thinking 
Men,  that  we  must  no  more  cut  our  selves  off 
from  the  Protestants  abroad,  but  rather  inlarge 
the  Foundations  upon  which  we  are  to  build 
our  Defences  against  the  Common  Enemy ;  so 
that  in  Truth,  all  things  seem  to  conspire  to 
give  you  ease  and  satisfaction,  if  by  too  much 
hast  to  anticipate  your  good  Fortune,  you  do 
not  destroy  it. 

1  This  bold  prophecy  waited  but  two  years  for  its  fulfil- 
ment, when  William  III,  secured  the  Toleration  Act  of 
1689. 

2  Mary,  who  had  married  William  of  Orange  in  1677, 
and  lived  with  him  in  Holland. 


HALIFAX  253 

The  Protestants  have  but  one  Article  of 
Human  Strength,  to  oppose  the  Power  which 
is  now  against  them,  and  that  is,  not  to  lose  the 
advantage  of  theii*  numbers,  by  being  so  unwary 
as  to  let  themselves  be  divided. 

We  all  agree  in  our  Duty  to  our  Prince,  our 
Objections  to  his  Belief,  do  not  hinder  us  from 
seeing  his  Vertues  ;  and  our  not  complying  with 
his  Rehgion,  hath  no  effect  upon  our  Allegiance; 
we  are  not  to  be  Laughed  out  of  our  Passive 
Obedience,  and  the  Doctrine  of  Non-Resistance, 
though  even  those  who  perhaps  owe  the  best 
part  of  their  Security  to  that  Principle,  are  apt 
to  make  a  Jest  of  it. 

So  that  if  we  give  no  advantage  by  the 
fatal  mistake  of  misapplying  our  Anger,  by  the 
natural  course  of  things,  this  Danger  will  pass 
away  like  a  shower  of  Hail;  fair  weather 
will  succeed,  as  lowering  as  the  sky  now 
looketh,  and  all  by  this  plain  and  easie 
Receipt.  Let  us  be  still,  quiet  and  undivided, 
firm  at  the  same  time  to  our  Religion,  our 
Loyalty,  and  our  Laws,  and  so  long  as  we 
continue  this  method,  it  is  next  to  impossible, 
that  the  odds  of  two  hundred  to  one  should 
lose  the  Bett;  except  the  Church  of  Rome, 
which  hath  been  so  long  barren  of  Miracles, 
should  now  in  her  declining  Age,  be  brought 


254  HALIFAX 

to   Bed  of  One  that  would   out-do  the  best 
she  can  brag  of  in  her  Legend. 

To  conclude,  the  short  Question  will  be, 
Whether  you  will  joyn  with  those  who  must 
in  the  end  run  the  same  Fate  with  you.  If 
Protestants  of  all  sorts,  in  their  Behaviour 
to  one  another,  have  been  to  blame,  they  are 
upon  the  more  equal  terms,  and  for  that  very 
reason  it  is  fitter  for  them  now  to  be  reconciled. 
Our  Dis-union  is  not  only  a  Reproach,  but  a 
Danger  to  us ;  those  who  believe  in  modern 
Miracles,  have  more  Right,  or  at  least  more 
Excuse,  to  neglect  all  Secular  Cautions ;  but 
for  us,  it  is  as  justifiable  to  have  no  Rehgion, 
as  wilfully  to  throw  away  the  Human  IMeans 
of  preserving  it.  I  am, 
Dear  SIR, 

Your  most  Affectionate 

Humble  Servant, 
T.  W. 


XIII 
DANIEL  DEFOE 


[The  author  of  Robinson  Crusoe  (c.  1660-1731) 
wrote  several  famous  pamphlets  both  political  and 
religious.  He  also  started  a  paper  the  Review^  and 
earned  a  not  very  honourable  living  as  political 
agent  and  publicist. 

The  immediate  cause  of  Defoe's  writing  the 
Shortest  Way  ivith  the  Dissenters  was  the  bill  for 
the  suppression  of  Occasional  Conformity  which 
the  'High-Flyers'  introduced  in  1702.  The  bill 
was  aimed  against  those  Dissenters  who,  to  avoid 
the  political  Disabilities,  were  in  the  habit  of  occa- 
sionally attending  church  ;  and  it  was  hoped  by 
the  High  Churchmen,  who  were  constantly  pressing 
for  legislation  against  the  practice,  that  its  sup- 
pression would  throw  many  Dissenters  into  full 
conformity.  Defoe  was  in  favour  of  the  Bill,  be- 
cause he  thought  the  loss  of  such  half-hearted  men 
would  be  a  gain  to  his  party  ;  but,  finding  the  rest 
of  the  Dissenters  suspected  him  for  his  view  of  the 
matter,  he  published  the  Shortest  Way  in  order  to 
expose  the  persecuting  Church  spirit  of  the  time, 
and  set  himself  right  with  his  friends.  Writing  in 
the  disguise  of  a  High  Churchman  he  urged  the 
complete  extirpation  of  all  Dissenters.  The  ruse 
was  complete.  For  a  time  the  pamphlet  deceived 
both  friend  and  foe  ;  the  extreme  Tories,  so  far  from 
detecting  the  irony  of  Defoe's  reductio  ad  absurdum, 
approved  it  in  sober  earnest  as  a  vigorous  state- 
ment of    their    own    views,   and    one    clergyman 


256  DANIEL  DEFOE 

declared  it  to  come  next  to  the  Bible  in  his  esti- 
mation. Defoe  had  to  write  and  explain  that  it 
was  meant  in  sarcasm.  Then  the  High-Flyers 
were  brought  to  their  senses,  and  had  to  disavow 
the  principles  thus  nakedly  revealed.  Naturally 
the  dominant  party  was  furious.  The  House  of 
Commons  ordered  the  pamphlet  to  be  burnt  by 
the  hangman  ;  and  in  1703  Defoe  was  prosecuted 
for  libelling  the  Church  by  misrepresenting  its 
principles.  He  was  sentenced  to  a  fine  of  200 
marks,  the  pillory,  and  imprisonment  during  the 
Queen's  pleasure.  When  he  stood  in  the  pillory  on 
the  three  last  days  of  July,  the  people  covered  it 
with  flowers,  formed  a  guard  of  honour,  and  drank 
his  health,  and  the  Hymn  to  the  Pillory  which  he 
had  written  was  sold  in  large  numbers  among  the 
crowd.  The  Occasional  Conformity  Bills  of  1702 
and  1706  were  passed  by  the  Tory  Commons,  but 
rejected  by  the  Lords,  the  Whig  bishops  voting 
against  it ;  but  in  the  Tory  enthusiasm  over  the 
Sacheverell  case  the  bill  became  law,  together 
with  the  Schism  Act  in  1710.  The  accession  of 
George  I.  brought  the  Whigs  again  into  power,  and 
both  acts  were  finally  repealed  in  1718. 

Many  will  think  that  Defoe  really  did  prove  too 
much.  His  supple  and  unprincipled  mind  was  able, 
as  we  know,  to  throw  itself  into  ojDposite  causes  for 
the  sake  of  profit,  and  in  the  Shortest  Way  he  seems 
to  take  a  delight  in  presenting  the  case  against  his 
co-religionists  in  the  strongest  possible  way,  as  if 
he  were  carried  away  by  the  part  he  was  playing. 
"  An  unprincipled  hack,  ready  to  take  any  side  of 
any  question,"  wrote  Macaulay.  "  Of  all  writers  he 
was  the  most  unlucky  in  irony.  Twice  he  was 
prosecuted  for  what  he  meant  to  be  ironical ;  but 
he  was  so  unskilful  that  everybody  understood  him 
literally."] 


DANIEL  DEFOE  257 

THE 

SHORTEST-WAY 

WITH  THE 

DISSENTERS : 

or 

Proposals 

for  the 

Establishment 

of  the 

Church. 

London  : 
Printed  in  the  Year  M.DCCII. 

Sir  Roger  L Estrange^  tells  us  a  Story  in  his 
Collection  of  Fables,  of  the  Cock  and  the 
Horses.  The  Cock  was  gotten  to  Roost  in  the 
Stable,  among  the  Horses,  and  there  being  no 
Racks,  or  other  Conveniences  for  him,  it  seems, 
he  was  forc'd  to  roost  upon  the  Ground ;  the 
Horses  jostling  about  for  room,  and  putting  the 
Cock  in  danger  of  his  Life,  he  gives  them  this 
grave  Advice ;  Pray  Gentlefolks  let  us  stand 

1  This  remarkable  pamphleteer,  author,  and  journalist, 
was  condemned  to  death  as  a  Royalist  in  1644,  but  lived 
to  be  imprisoned  again  by  Wil.  III.  in  1695,  and  died  in 
1704,  after  a  chequered  career  of  88  years. 


258  DANIEL  DEFOE 

stilly  for  fear  we  should  tread  upon  one 
another. 

There  are  some  People  in  the  World,  who 
now  they  are  unpearchtj  and  reduc'd  to  an 
Equality  with  other  People,  and  under  strong 
and  very  just  apprehensions  of  being  further 
treated  as  they  deserve,  begin  with  ^sops 
Cock,  to  Preach  up  Peace  and  Union,  and 
the  Christian  Duties  of  Moderation,  forgetting, 
that  when  they  had  the  Power  in  their  Hands, 
those  Graces  were  Strangers  in  their  Gates. 

It  is  now  near  Fourteen  Years,^  that  the 
Glory  and  Peace  of  the  purest  and  most 
flourishing  Church  in  the  World  has  been 
Ecclips'd,  BufFetted,  and  Disturb'd,  by  a  sort  of 
Men,  who  God  in  his  Providence  has  suffer'd  to 
insult  over  her,  and  bring  her  down ;  these 
have  been  the  Days  of  her  Humiliation  and 
Tribulation :  She  has  born  with  an  invin- 
cible Patience  the  Reproach  of  the  Wicked, 
and  God  has  at  last  heard  her  Prayers,  and 
deliver'd  her  from  the  oppression  of  the  stranger. 

And  now  they  find  their  Day  is  over,  their 
Power  gone,  and  the  Throne  of  this  Nation 
possest  of  a  Royal,  English,  True,  and  ever 

^  In  1689  William  III.  came  to  the  throne,  and  passed 
the  Toleration  Act  which  allowed  to  Orthodox  Dissenters 
the  free  exercise  of  their  religion. 


DANIEL  DEFOE  259 

Constant  Member  of,  and  Friend  to  the  Church 
of  England}  Now  they  find  that  they  are  in 
danger  of  the  Church  of  England's  just  Resent- 
ments ;  now  they  cry  out  Peace,  Union,  For- 
bearance, and  Charity,  as  if  the  Church  had 
not  too  long  harbour'd  her  Enemies  under  her 
Wing,  and  nourish'd  the  viperous  Brood,  till 
they  hiss  and  fly  in  the  Face  of  the  Mother 
that  cherish'd  them. 

No  Gentlemen,  the  Time  of  Mercy  is  past, 
your  Day  of  Gra^e  is  over ;  you  shou'd  have 
practis'd  Peace,  and  Moderation,  and  Charity, 
if  you  expected  any  your  selves. 

We  have  heard  none  of  this  Lesson  for  Four- 
teen Years  past:  We  have  been  huff'd  and 
bully'd  with  your  Act  of  Tolleration ;  you  have 
told  us  that  you  are  the  Church  establish'd  by 
Law,  as  well  as  others ;  have  set  up  your 
Canting-Synagogues  at  our  Church-Doors,  and 
the  Church  and  her  Members  have  been  loaded 
with  Reproaches,  with  Oaths,  Associations, 
Abjurations,  and  what  not;  where  has  been 
the  Mercy,  the  Forbearance,  the  Charity  you 
have  shewn  to  tender  Consciences  of  the 
Church    of   England,'^    that    cou'd    not   take 

^  Queen  Anne,  a  staunch  Churchwoman,  had  just  come 
to  the  throne.  William  III.,  besides  being  Dutch,  was 
no  friend  of  Church  doctrines. 

2  I.e.  The  Nonjurors. 


26o  DANIEL  DEFOE 

Oaths  as  fast  as  you  made  'em ;  that  having 
sworn  allegiance  to  their  lawful  and  rightful 
King,  cou'd  not  dispence  with  that  Oath,  their 
King  being  still  alive,  and  swear  to  your 
new  Hodge-podge  of  a  Dutch- Government. 
These  ha'  been  turn'd  out  of  their  Livings,^ 
and  they  and  their  Families  left  to  starve ; 
their  Estates  double  Tax'd,  to  carry  on  a  War 
they  had  no  Hand  in,  and  you  got  nothing 
by :  What  Account  can  you  give  of  the  Multi- 
tudes you  have  forc'd  to  comply,  against  their 
Consciences,  with  your  new  sophistical  Poli- 
ticks, who  like  the  new  Converts  in  France, 
Sin  because  they  can't  Starve.  And  now  the 
Tables  are  turn'd  upon  you,  you  must  not  be 
Persecuted,  'tis  not  a  Christian  Spirit. 

You  have  Butcher  d  one  King,  Depos'd 
another  King,  and  made  a  mock  King  of  a 
Thu'd ;  and  yet  you  cou'd  have  the  Face  to 
expect  to  be  employ'd  and  trusted  by  the 
Fourth ;  any  body  that  did  not  know  the 
Temper  of  your  Party,  wou'd  stand  amaz'd 
at  the  Impudence,  as  well  as  Folly,  to  think 
of  it. 

Your  Management  of  your  Dutch  Monarch, 

^  Sancroft,  Ken,  and  four  other  bishops,  as  well  as  400 
priests,  were  expelled  for  refusing  the  oath  of  allegiance 
to  William  and  Mary. 


DANIEL  DEFOE  261 

whom  you  reduc'd  to  a  meer  King  of  CI ...  s, 
is  enough  to  give  any  future  Princes  such  an 
Idea  of  your  Principles,  as  to  warn  them 
sufficiently  from  coming  into  your  Clutches  ; 
and  God  be  thank'd,  the  Queen  is  out  of  your 
Hands,  knows  you,  and  will  have  a  care  of 
you. 

There  is  no  doubt  but  the  supreme  Authority 
of  a  Xation  has  in  its  self  a  Power,  and  a  Bight 
to  that  Power,  to  execute  the  Laws  upon  any 
Part  of  that  Nation  it  governs.  The  execu- 
tion of  the  known  Laws  of  the  Land,  and  that 
with  but  a  weak  and  gentle  Hand  neither, 
was  all  that  the  phanatical  Party  of  this  Land 
have  ever  call'd  Persecution ;  this  they  have 
magnified  to  a  height,  that  the  Sufferings  of 
the  Hugonots  in  France  were  not  to  be  com- 

par'd  with .     Now  to  execute  the  knowTi 

Laws  of  a  Nation  upon  those  who  transgress 
them,  after  having  first  been  voluntarily  con- 
senting to  the  making  those  Laws,  can  never 
be  call'd  Persecution,  but  Justice  :  But  Justice 
is  always  Violence  to  the  Party  oiFendmg,  for 
every  Man  is  Innocent  in  his  own  Eyes.  The 
first  execution  of  the  Laws  against  Dissenters 
in  England,  was  in  the  Days  of  King  James 
the  First;  and  what  did  it  amount  to,  truly, 
the  worst  they  suffer'd,  was  at  their  own  re- 


262  DANIEL  DEFOE 

quest,  to  let  them  go  to  New  England,^  and 
erect  a  new  Collony,  and  give  them  great 
Privileges,  Grants,  and  suitable  Powers,  keep 
them  mider  Protection,  and  defend  them 
asrainst  all  Invaders,  and  receive  no  Taxes  or 
Revenue  from  them.  This  was  the  cruelty 
of  the  Church  of  England,  fatal  Lenity ! 
'Twas  the  ruin  of  that  excellent  Prince,  King 
Charles  the  First.  Had  King  James  sent  all,^ 
the  Puritans  in  England  away  to  the  West- 
Indies,  we  had  been  a  national  unmix'd 
Church ;  the  Church  of  England  had  been 
kept  undivided  and  entire. 

To  require  the  Lenity  of  the  Father,  they 
take  up  Arms  against  the  Son ;  Conquer, 
Pursue,  Take,  Imprison,  and  at  last  put  to 
Death  the  anointed  of  God,  and  Destroy  the 
very  Being  and  Nature  of  Government,  setting 
up  a  sordid  Impostor,  who  had  neither  Title 
to  Govern,  nor  Understanding  to  Manage, 
but  supplied  that  want  with  Power,  bloody 
and  desperate  Councils  and  Craft,  without 
Conscience. 

Had  not  King  James  the  First  witheld  the 
full  execution  of  the  Laws ;  had  he  given  them 
strict  Justice,  he  had  clear'd  the  Nation  of 
them,  and  the  Consequences  had  been  plain; 

^  The  Pilgrim  Fathers  sailed  in  the  Mayflower  in  1620. 


DANIEL  DEFOE  263 

his  Son  had  never  been  murther'd  by  them,  nor 
the  Monarchy  overwhelm'd ;  'twas  too  much 
Mercy  shewn  them,  was  the  ruin  of  his  Pos- 
terity, and  the  ruin  of  the  Nation's  Peace.  One 
would  think  the  Dissenters  should  not  have  the 
Face  to  believe  that  we  are  to  be  wheedl'd  and 
canted  into  Peace  and  Toleration,  when  they 
know  that  they  have  once  requited  us  with 
a  civil  War,  and  once  with  an  intollerable 
and  unrighteous  Persecution  for  our  former 
Civillity. 

Nay,  to  encourage  us  to  be  Easy  with  them, 
'tis  apparent,  that  they  never  had  the  Upper- 
hand  of  the  Church,  but  they  treated  her  with 
all  Severity,  with  all  the  Eeproach  and  Con- 
tempt as  was  possible  :  What  Peace,  and  what 
Mercy  did  they  shew  the  Loyal  Gentry  of  the 
Church  of  England  in  the  time  of  their 
Triumphant  Common-wealth  ?  How  did  they 
put  all  the  Gentry  of  England  to  ransom, 
whether  they  were  actually  in  Arms  for  the 
Bang  or  not,  making  People  compound  for 
their  Estates,  and  starve  their  Families  ?  How 
did  they  treat  the  Clergy  of  the  Church  of 
England,  sequester'd  the  Ministers,  devour'd 
the  Patrimony  of  the  Church,  and  divided  the 
Spoil,  by  sharing  the  Church-Lands  among 
then-  Soldiers,  and  turning  her  Clergy  out  to 


264  DANIEL  DEFOE 

starve ;  just  such  Measure  as  they  have  mete, 
shou'd  be  measur'd  to  them  again. 

Charity  and  Love  is  the  kno^^^l  Doctrine  of 
the  Church  of  England,  and  'tis  plain  she  has 
put  it  in  practice  towards  the  Dissenters,  even 
beyond  Avhat  they  ought,  till  she  has  been 
wanting  to  her  self,  and  in  effect,  unkind  to  her 
own  Sons ;  particularly,  in  the  too  much  Lenity 
of  King  James  the  First,  mentioned  before,  had 
he  so  rooted  the  Puritans  from  the  Face  of  the 
Land,  w^hich  he  had  an  opportunity  early  to  ha' 
done,  they  had  not  the  Power  to  vex  the 
Church,  as  since  they  have  done. 

In  the  Days  of  King  Charles  the  Second, 
how  did  the  Church  reward  their  bloody 
Doings  with  Lenity  and  Mercy,  except  the 
barbarous  Regicides  of  the  pretended  Court  of 
Justice  ;  not  a  Soul  suffer'd  for  all  the  Blood  in 
an  unnatural  War:  King  Charles  came  in  all 
Mercy  and  Love,  cherish'd  them,  preferr'd 
them,  employ'd  them,  witheld  the  rigour  of  the 
Law,  and  oftentimes,  even  against  the  Advice 
of  his  ParHament,  gave  them  liberty  of  Con- 
science ;  and  how  did  they  requite  him  with  the 
villainous  Contrivance  to  Depose  and  Murther 
him  and  his  Successor  at  the  Rye-Plot} 

1  The  Rye  House  Plot,  1683. 


•  DANIEL  DEFOE  265 

King  Jarms,  as  if  Mercy  was  the  inherent 
Quality  of  the  Family,  began  his  Reign  with 
unusual  Favour  to  them  :  Nor  could  their  join- 
ing with  the  Duke  of  Monmouth  against  him 
move  liim  to  do  himself  Justice  upon  themi 
but    that    mistaken    Prince    thought    to    win 
them  by  Gentleness  and  Love,  proclaim'd  an 
umversal  Liberty  to    them,   and    rather    dis- 
countenanc'd  the    Church    of   Englmid    than 
them;  how  they  requited  him  all  the  World 
knows. 

The  late  Reign  is  too  fresh  in  the  Memory 
of  all  the  World  to  need  a  Comment;  how 
under  Pretence  of  joining  with  the  Church  in 
redressing  some  Grievances,  they  pusht  things 
to  that  extremity,  in  conjunction   with   some 
imstaken  Gentlemen,  as  to  Depose  the  late 
Kmg,  as  if  the  Grievance  of  the  Nation  cou'd 
not  ha'  been  redress'd  but  by  the  absolute  ruin 
of  the   Prince:    Here's   an   Instance   of  their 
Temper,  their  Peace,  and  Charity.    To  what 
height  they  carried  themselves  during  the  Reign 
of  a  Kmg  of  their  own ;  how  they  crope  int„ 
all   Places   of   Trust    and    Profit;    how  they 
msmuated  into  the  Favour  of  the  King   and 
were  at  first  preferred  to  the  highest  Places  in 
the  Nation ;  how  they  engrost  the  Ministiy,  and 


B 


266  DANIEL  DEFOE 

iibove  all,  how  pitifully  they  managed,  is  too 
plain  to  need  any  Remarks. 

But  particularly,  their  Mercy  and  Charity, 
the  Spirit  of  Union,  they  tell  us  so  much  of,  has 
been  remarkable  in  Scotland,  if  any  Man  wou'd 
see  the  Spirit  of  a  Dissenter,  let  him  look  into 
Scotland  ;  there  they  made  an  entire  Conquest 
of  the  Chiu'ch,  trampled  down  the  sacred 
Orders,  and  supprest  the  Episcopal  Govern- 
ment, with  an  absolute,  and  as  they  suppose, 
irretrievable  Victory,  tho',  'tis  possible,  they 
may  find  themselves  mistaken:  Now  'twou'd 
be  a  very  proper  Question  to  ask  their  Im- 
pudent Advocate,  the  Ohservator,  Pray  how 
much  Mercy  and  Favour  did  the  Membei's  of 
the  Episcopal  Church  find  in  Scotland,  from 
the  Scotch  Presbyterian-Government ;  and  I 
shall  undertake  for  the  Church  of  England, 
that  the  Dissenters  shall  still  receive  as  much 
here,  tho'  they  deserve  but  little. 

In  a  small  Treatise  of  the  Sufferings  of 
the  Episcopal  Clergy  in  Scotland,  'twill  appear, 
what  Usage  they  met  with,  how  they  not  only 
lost  their  Livings,  but  in  several  Places 
were  plunder'd  and  abus'd  in  their  Persons ; 
the  Ministers  that  cou'd  not  conform,  turn'd 
out,  with  numerous  Families,  and  no  Mainten- 


DANIEL  DEFOE  267 

ance,  and  hardly  Charity  enough  left  to  relieve 
them  with  a  bit  of  Bread ;  and  the  Cruelties  of 
the  Party  are  innumerable,  and  not  to  be 
attempted  in  this  short  Piece. 

And  now  to  prevent  the  distant  Cloud  which 
they  perceiv'd  to  hang  over  their  Heads  from 
England  ;  with  a  true  Presbyterian  Policy,  they 
put  in  for  a  union  of  Nations,  that  England 
might  unite  their  Church  with  the  Kirk  of 
Scotland,  and  their  Presbyterian  Members  sit 
in  our  House  of  Commons,  and  their  Assembly 
of  Scotch  canting  Long-Cloaks  in  our  Convoca- 
tion; what  might  ha'  been,  if  our  Phanatick 
Whiggish-States-men  had  continu'd,  God  only 
knows  ;  but  we  hope  we  are  out  of  fear  of  that 
now. 

'Tis  alledg'd  by  some  of  the  Faction,  and  they 
began  to  Bully  us  with  it ;  that  if  we  won't 
unite  with  them,  they  will  not  settle  the  Crown 
with  us  again,  but  when  her  Majesty  dies,  will 
chuse  a  King  for  themselves. 

If  we  won't,  we  must  make  them,  and  'tis 
not  the  first  time  we  have  let  them  know  that 
we  are  able :  The  Crowns  of  these  Kingdoms 
have  not  so  far  disowned  the  right  of  Succes- 
sion, but  they  may  retrieve  it  again,  and  if 
Scotland  thinks  to  come  off  from  a  Successive 
to  an  Elective  State  of  Government,  England 


268  DANIEL  DEFOE 

has  not  promised  not  to  assist  the  right  Heir, 
and  put  them  into  possession,  without  any 
regard  to  their  ridiculous  Settlements. 

These  are  the  Gentlemen,  these  their  ways 
of  treating  the  Church,  both  at  home  and 
abroad.  Now  let  us  examine  the  Reasons 
they  pretend  to  give  why  we  shou'd  be 
favourable  to  them,  why  we  should  continue 
and  tollerate  them  among  us. 

First,  They  are  very  Numerous,  they  say, 
they  are  a  great  Part  of  the  Nation,  and  we 
cannot  suppress  them. 

To  this  may  be  answer'd.  I.  They  are 
not  so  Numerous  as  the  Protestants  in  France, 
and  yet  the  French  King^  effectually  clear'd 
the  Nation  of  them  at  once,  and  we  don't 
find  he  misses  them  at  home. 

But  I  am  not  of  the  Opinion  they  are  so 
Numerous  as  is  pretended;  their  Party  is 
more  Numerous  than  their  Persons,  and  those 
mistaken  People  of  the  Chiu'ch,  who  are  misled 
and  deluded  by  their  wheedling  Artifices,  to 
join  with  them,  make  their  Party  the  greater ; 

^  Louis  XIV. ,  by  the  Revocation  of  the  Edict  of  Nantes, 


in 


1685. 


DANIEL  DEFOE  269 

but  those  will  open  their  Eyes,  when  the 
Government  shall  set  heartily  about  the  work, 
and  come  off  fi'om  them,  as  some  Animals, 
which  they  say,  always  desert  a  House  when 
'tis  likely  to  fall. 

2dly.  The  more  Numerous,  the  more  Dan- 
gerous, and  therefore  the  more  need  to  sup- 
press them;  and  God  has  suffer'd  us  to  bear 
them  as  Goads  in  our  sides,  for  not  utterly 
extinguishing  them  long  ago. 

3dly,  If  we  are  to  allow  them,  only  be- 
cause we  cannot  suppress  them,  then  it  ought 
to  be  tried  whether  we  can  or  no;  and  I 
am  of  Opinion  'tis  easy  to  be  done,  and  cou'd 
prescribe  Ways  and  Means,  if  it  were  proper, 
but  I  doubt  not  but  the  Government  will  find 
effectual  Methods  for  the  rooting  the  Con- 
tagion from  the  Face  of  this  Land. 

Another  Argument  they  use,  which  is  this, 
that  'tis  a  time  of  War,  and  we  have  need  to 
unite  against  the  common  Enemy. 

We  answer,  this  common  Enemy  had  been 
no  Enemy,  if  they  had  not  made  him  so ;  ^  he 
was  quiet,  in  peace,  and  no  way  disturbed,  or 

1  The  French  War  of  1689-1697  came  about  through 
the  Accession  of  Wil.  III.    The  next  War  began  in  1702. 


270  DANIEL  DEFOE 

encroach'd  upon  us,  and  we  know  no  reason 
we  had  to  quarrel  with  him. 

But  further,  We  make  no  question  but  we 
are  able  to  deal  with  this  common  Enemy 
without  their  help;  but  why  must  we  unite 
with  them  because  of  the  Enemy,  will  they 
go  over  to  the  Enemy,  if  we  do  not  prevent 

it  by  a  union  with  them .     We  are  very 

well  contented  they  shou'd ;  and  make  no 
question,  we  shall  be  ready  to  deal  with  them 
and  the  common  Enemy  too,  and  better  with- 
out them  than  with  them. 

Besides,  if  we  have  a  common  Enemy,  there 
is  the  more  need  to  be  secure  against  our 
private  Enemies;  if  there  is  one  common 
Enemy,  we  have  the  less  need  to  have  an 
Enemy  in  our  Bowels. 

'Twas  a  great  Argument  some  People  used 
against  suppressing  the  Old-Money,  that  'twas 
a  time  of  War,  and  'twas  too  great  a  Risque 
for  the  Nation  to  run,  if  we  shou'd  not  master 
it,  we  shou'd  be  undone ;  and  yet  the  Sequel 
prov'd  the  Hazard  was  not  so  great,  but  it 
might  be  mastered ;  and  the  Success  was 
answerable.  The  suppressing  the  Dissenters 
is  not  a  harder  Work,  nor  a  Work  of  less 
necessity  to  the  Publick ;  we  can  never  enjoy 
a  settled  uninterrupted  Union  and  Tranquility 


DANIEL  DEFOE  271 

in  this  Nation,  till  the  Spirit  of  \Miiggisme, 
Faction,  and  Schism  is  melted  down  like  the 
Old-Money. 

To  talk  of  the  Difficulty,  is  to  Frighten  our 
selves  with  Chimaeras  and  Notions  of  a  Power- 
ful Party,  which  are  indeed  a  Party  without 
Power;  Difficulties  often  appear  greater  at  a 
distance,  than  when  they  are  search'd  into  with 
Judgment,  and  distinguish'd  from  the  Vapours 
and  Shadows  that  attend  them. 

We  are  not  to  be  frightened  with  it;  this 
Age  is  wiser  than  that,  by  all  our  own  Experi- 
ence, and  theires  too ;  King  Charles  the  Fii'st, 
had  early  supprest  this  Party,  if  he  had  took 
more  deliberate  Measures.  In  short,  'tis  not 
worth  arguing,  to  talk  of  their  Arms,  their 
Monmouths,  and  Shaftesburys,  and  Argiles  are 
gone,  then*  Dutch- Sanctuary  is  at  an  end. 
Heaven  has  made  way  for  their  Destruction, 
and  if  we  do  not  close  with  the  Divine  occa- 
sion, we  are  to  blame  our  selves,  and  may 
remember  that  we  had  once  an  opportunity  to 
serve  the  Church  of  England,  by  extirpating 
her  huplacable  Enemies,  and  having  let  slip  the 
Minute  that  Heaven  presented,  may  experi- 
mentally Complain,  Post  est  Occasio  Calvo. 

Here  are  some  popular  Objections  in  the 
Way. 


272  DANIEL  DEFOE 

As  first,  The  Queen  has  promis'd  them,  to 
continue  them  in  their  tolleratecl  Liberty ;  and 
has  told  us  she  will  be  a  religious  Observer  of 
her  Word. 

What  her  Majesty  will  do  we  cannot  help, 
but  what,  as  the  Head  of  the  Church,  she 
ought  to  do,  is  another  Case :  Her  Majesty  has 
promised  to  Protect  and  Defend  the  Church  of 
England,  and  if  she  cannot  effectually  do  that 
without  the  Destruction  of  the  Dissenters,  she 
must  of  course  dispence  with  one  Promise  to 
comply  with  another.  But  to  answer  this  Cavil 
more  effectually :  Her  Majesty  did  never 
promise  to  maintain  the  Tolleration,  to  the 
Destruction  of  the  Church ;  but  it  is  upon  sup- 
position that  it  may  be  compatible  with  the 
well  being  and  safety  of  the  Church,  which  she 
had  declar'd  she  would  take  especial  Care  of: 
Now  if  these  two  Interests  clash,  'tis  plain  her 
Majesties  Intentions  are  to  Uphold,  Protect, 
Defend,  and  Establish  the  Church,  and  this  we 
conceive  is  impossible. 

Perhaps  it  may  be  said,  That  the  Church  is 
in  no  immediate  Danger  from  the  Dissenters, 
and  therefore  'tis  time  enough :  But  this  is  a 
weak  Answer. 


DANIEL  DEFOE  273 

For  first,  If  a  Danger  be  real,  the  Distance 
of  it  is  no  Argument  against,  but  rather  a  Spur 
to  quicken  us  to  prevention,  lest  it  be  too  late 
hereafter. 

And  2dly,  Here  is  the  Opportunity,  and  the 
only  one  perhaps  that  ever  the  Church  had  to 
secure  her  self,  and  destroy  her  Enemies. 

The  Representatives  of  the  Nation  have  now 
an  Opportunity,  the  Time  is  come  which  all 
good  Men  ha'  wish'd  for,  that  the  Gentlemen 
of  England  may  serve  the  Church  of  England  ; 
now  they  are  protected  and  encouraged  by  a 
Church  of  England  Queen. 

Wliat  will  ye  do  for  your  Sister  in  the  Day 
that  she  shall  be  spoken  for. 

If  ever  you  will  establish  the  best  Christian 
Church  in  the  World. 

If  ever  you  will  suppress  the  Spirit  of 
Enthusiasm.^ 

If  ever  you  will  free  the  Nation  from  the 
viperous  Brood  that  have  so  long  suck'd  the 
Blood  of  their  Mother. 

If  you  will  leave  your  Posterity  free  from 
Faction  and  Rebellion,  this  is  the  time. 

This   is  the  time  to  pull  up  this  heretical 

^  *  Enthusiasm '  was  the  great  bugbear  of  the 
Eighteenth  Century  statesmen  and  ecclesiastics, — with 
what  result  to  the  Church  we  are  painfully  familiar. 
See  p.  215. 


2  74  DANIEL  DEFOE 

Weed  of  Sedition,  that  has  so  long  disturb'd  the 
Peace  of  our  Church,  and  poisoned  the  good 
Corn. 

But,  says  another  Hot  and  Cold  Objector, 
this  is  renewing  Fire  and  Faggot,  reviving  the 
Act  De  Heret.  Comburendo:^  This  will  be 
Cruelty  in  its  Nature,  and  Barbarous  to  all  the 
World. 

I  answer,  'Tis  Cruelty  to  kill  a  Snake  or  a 
Toad  in  cold  Blood,  but  the  Poyson  of  their 
Nature  makes  it  a  Charity  to  our  Neighbours, 
to  destroy  those  Creatures,  not  for  any  personal 
Injuiy  receiv'd,  but  for  prevention ;  not  for  the 
Evil  they  have  done,  but  the  Evil  they  may  do. 

Serpents,  Toads,  Vipers,  &c.,  are  noxious  to 
the  Body,  and  poison  the  sensitive  Life ;  these 
poyson  the  Soul,  corrupt  our  Posterity,  ensnare 
our  Children,  destroy  the  Vitals  of  our  Happy- 
ness,  our  future  FeUcity,  and  contaminate  the 
whole  Mass. 

Shall  any  Law  be  given  to  such  wild 
Creatures :    Some  Beasts  are  for  Sport,   and 

^  The  Act  JDe  Haeretico  Comhurendo  was  passed  in  1401. 
On  the  accession  of  Elizabeth  the  law  was  modified,  but 
still  men  were  burnt  for  heresy  in  her  reign  and  that  of 
James  I.  The  death-punishment  for  heresy  was  not 
abolished  till  the  reign  of  Charles  II.,  in  1677. 


DANIEL  DEFOE  275 

the  Huntsmen  give  them  advantages  of  Ground; 
but  some  are  knock'd  on  Head  by  all  possible 
ways  of  Violence  and  Surprize. 

I  do  not  prescribe  Fire  and  Fagot,  but  as 
Scipio  said  of  Carthage,  Dilenda  est  Carthago  ; 
they  are  to  be  rooted  out  of  this  Nation,  if  ever 
we  will  live  in  Peace,  serve  God,  or  enjoy  our 
own :  As  for  the  Manner,  I  leave  it  to  those 
Hands  who  have  a  right  to  execute  God's 
Justice  on  the  Nation's  and  the  Church's 
Enemies. 

But  if  we  must  be  frighted  from  this  Justice, 
under  the  specious  Pretences,  and  odious  Sense 
of  Cruelty,  nothing  will  be  effected :  'Twill 
be  more  Barbarous  and  Cruel  to  om*  own 
Children,  and  dear  Posterity,  when  they  shall 
reproach  their  Fathers,  as  we  do  ours,  and 
tell  us,  *You  had  an  Opportunity  to  root 
out  this  cursed  Race  from  the  World,  under 
the  Favour  and  Protection  of  a  true  English 
Queen;  and  out  of  your  foolish  Pity  you 
spared  them,  because,  forsooth,  you  would  not 
be  Cruel,  and  now  our  Church  is  supprest  and 
persecuted,  our  ReHgion  trampl'd  under  Foot, 
our  Estates  plundred,  our  Persons  imprisoned 
and  dragg'd  to  Jails,  Gibbets,  and  Scaffolds; 
your  sparing  this  Amalakite  Race  is  our  De- 


276  DANIEL  DEFOE 

struction,  your  Mercy  to  them  proves  Cruelty 
to  your  poor  Posterity. 

How  just  will  such  Reflections  be,  when  our 
Posterity  shall  fall  under  the  merciless  Clutches 
of  this  uncharitable  Generation,  when  our 
Church  shall  be  swallow'd  up  in  Schism, 
Faction,  Enthusiasme,  and  Confusion ;  when  our 
Government  shall  be  devolv'd  upon  Foreigners, 
and  our  ^lonarchy  dwindled  into  a  Republick. 

'Twou'd  be  more  rational  for  us,  if  we  must 
spare  this  Generation,  to  summon  our  own  to 
a  general  Massacre,  and  as  we  have  brought 
them  into  the  World  Free,  send  them  out  so, 
and  not  betray  them  to  Destruction  by  our 
supine  negligence,  and  then  cry  it  is  Mercy. 

Moses  was  a  merciful  meek  Man,  and  yet 
with  what  Fury  did  he  run  thro'  the  Camp, 
and  cut  the  Throats  of  Three  and  thirty 
thousand  of  his  dear  Israelites,  that  were 
fallen  into  Idolatry ;  what  was  the  reason  ? 
'twas  Mercy  to  the  rest,  to  make  these  be 
Examples,  to  prevent  the  Destruction  of  the 
whole  Army. 

How  many  Millions  of  future  Souls  we  save 
from  Infection  and  Delusion,  if  the  present  Race 
of  poison'd  Spirits  were  purg'd  from  the  Face  of 
the  Land. 


DANIEL  DEFOE  277 

'Tis  vain  to  trifle  in  this  matter,  the  light 
foolish  handling  of  them  by  Mulcts,  Fines,  &€., 
'tis  their  Glory  and  their  Advantage;  if  the 
Gallows  instead  of  the  Counter,  and  the 
Gallows  instead  of  the  Fines,  were  the  Reward 
of  going  to  a  Conventicle,  to  preach  or  hear, 
there  wou'd  not  be  so  many  Sufferers,  the 
Spu-it  of  Martyi'dom  is  over;  they  that  will 
go  to  Church  to  be  chosen  Sheriffs  and 
Mayors,  would  go  to  forty  Churches  rather 
than  be  Hang'd. 

If  one  severe  Law  were  made,  and  punctually 
executed,  that  who  ever  was  found  at  a  Con- 
venticle, shou'd  be  Banish'd  the  Nation,  and 
the  Preacher  be  Hang'd,  we  shou'd  soon  see  an 
end  of  the  Tale,  they  wou'd  aU  come  to  Church ; 
and  one  Age  wou'd  make  us  all  One  again. 

To  talk  of  5s.  a  Month  for  not  coming 
to  the  Sacrament,  and  Is.  i:ier  Week  for 
not  coming  to  Church,  this  is  such  a  way  of 
converting  People  as  never  was  known,  this 
is  selling  them  a  Liberty  to  transgress  for  so 
much  Money :  If  it  be  not  a  Crime,  why  don't 
we  give  them  full  Licence  ?  And  if  it  be,  no 
Price  ought  to  compound  for  the  committing  it, 
for  that  is  selling  a  Liberty  to  People  to  sin 
against  God  and  the  Government. 


278  DANIEL  DEFOE 

If  it  be  a  Crime  of  the  highest  Consequence, 
both  against  the  Peace  and  Welfare  of  the 
Nation,  the  Glory  of  God,  the  Good  of  the 
Church,  and  the  Happyness  of  the  Soul, 
let  us  rank  it  among  capital  Offences,  and 
let  it  receive  a  Punishment  in  proportion 
to  it. 

We  Hang  Men  for  Trifles,  and  Banish  them 
for  things  not  worth  naming,  but  an  Offence 
against  God  and  the  Church,  against  the 
Welfare  of  the  World,  and  the  Dignity  of 
Religion,  shall  be  bought  off  for  5s.  This 
is  such  a  shame  to  a  Christian  Government, 
that  'tis  with  regret  I  transmit  it  to  Posterity. 

If  Men  sin  against  God,  affront  his  Or- 
dinances, rebell  against  his  Church,  and  disobey 
the  Precepts  of  their  Superiors,  let  them  sufifer 
as  such  capital  Crimes  deserve,  so  wiU  Re- 
ligion flourish,  and  this  divided  Nation  be 
once  again  united. 

And  yet  the  Title  of  Barbarous  and  Cruel 
will  soon  be  taken  off  from  this  Law  too.  I 
am  not  supposing  that  all  the  Dissenters  in 
England  shou'd  be  Hang'd  or  Banish'd,  but 
as  in  cases  of  Rebellions  and  Insurrections, 
if  a  few  of  the  Ring-leaders  suffer,  the  Multi- 
tude  are   dismist,   so  a  few  obstinate  People 


DANIEL  DEFOE  279 

being  made  Examples  there's  no  doubt  but 
the  Severity  of  the  Law  would  find  a  stop  in 
the  Compliance  of  the  Multitude. 

To  make  the  reasonableness  of  this  matter 
out  of  question,  and  more  unanswerably  plain, 
let  us  examine  for  what  it  is  that  this  Nation 
is  divided  into  Parties  and  Factions,  and  let 
us  see  how  they  can  justify  a  Separation,  or 
we  of  the  Church  of  England  can  justify  our 
bearing  the  Insults  and  Inconveniences  of  the 
Party. 

One  of  their  leading  Pastors,  and  a  Man  of 
as  much  Learning  as  most  among  them,  in  his 
Answer  to  a  Pamphlet,  entituled,  A  Enquiry 
into  the  occasional  Conformity,  hath  these 
words,  p.  27.  Do  the  Religion  of  the  Church 
and  the  Meeting-houses  make  two  Religions? 
]Vherein  do  they  differ  ?  The  Substance  of  the 
same  Religion  is  common  to  them  both;  and 
The  Modes  and  Accidents  are  the  things  in 
which  only  they  differ.  P.  28.  Thirty  nine 
Articles  are  given  us  for  the  summary  of  our 
Religion,  Thirty  six  contain  the  Substance  of 
it,  wherein  we  agree;  Three  the  additional 
Appendices,  about  which  tve  have  some  differ- 
ences. 

Now,  if  as  by  their  own  acknowledgment,  the 


28o  DANIEL  DEFOE 

Church  of  England  is  a  true  Church,  and  the 
Difference  between  them  is  only  a  few  Modes 
and  Accidents,  why  shou'd  we  expect  that 
they  will  suffer  Gallows  and  Gallies,  corporeal 
Punishment  and  Banishment  for  these  Trifles, 
there  is  no  question  but  they  will  be  wiser; 
even  their  own  Principles  won't  bear  them 
out  in  it,  they  will  certainly  comply  with  the 
Laws,  and  with  Reason,  and  tho'  at  the  first, 
Severity  may  seem  hard,  the  next  Age  will 
feel  nothing  of  it ;  the  Contagion  will  be  rooted 
out ;  the  Disease  being  cur'd,  there  ^vill  be 
no  need  of  the  Operation,  but  if  they  should 
venture  to  transgress,  and  fall  into  the  Pit, 
all  the  World  must  condemn  their  Obstinacy, 
as  being  without  Ground  fi'om  their  o^\ti 
Principles. 

Thus  the  Pretence  of  Cruelty  will  be  taken 
off,  and  the  Party  actually  supprest,  and  the 
Disquiets  they  have  so  often  brought  upon  the 
Nation,  prevented. 

Their  Numbers  and  their  Wealth,  makes 
them  Haughty,  and  that  is  so  far  from  being 
an  Argument  to  perswade  us  to  forbear  them, 
that  'tis  a  Warning  to  us,  without  any  more 
delay,  to  reconcile  them  to  the  Unity  of  the 
Church,  or  remove  them  from  us. 


DANIEL  DEFOE  281 

At  present,  Heaven  be  prais'd,  they  are 
not  so  Formidable  as  they  have  been,^  and  'tis 
our  own  fault  if  ever  we  suffer .  them  to  be 
so;  Providence,  and  the  Church  of  England^ 
seems  to  join  in  this  particular,  that  now  the 
Destroyers  of  tlie  Nations  Peace  may  be  over- 
turn'd,  and  to  this  end  the  present  Opportunity 
seems  to  be  put  into  our  Hands. 

To  this  end  her  present  Majesty  seems 
reserv'd  to  enjoy  the  Crown,  That  the  Eccle- 
siastick  as  well  as  Civil  Rights  of  the  Nation 
may  be  restor'd  by  her  Hand. 

To  this  end  the  Face  of  Affairs  have  receiv'd 
such  a  Turn  in  the  process  of  a  few  Months, 
as  never  has  been  before ;  and  leadmg  Men  of 
the  Nation,  the  universal  Cry  of  the  People,  the 
unanimous  Request  of  the  Clergy,  agree  in  this, 
that  the  DeHverance  of  our  Church  is  at  hand. 

For  this  end  has  ^Providence  given  us  such 
a  Parliament,  such  a  Convocation,  such  a 
Gentry,  and  such  a  Queen  as  we  never  had 
before. 

And  what  may  be  the  Consequences  of  a 
Neglect  of  such  Opportunities  ?  The  Succession 
of  the  Crown  has  but  a  dark  Prospect,^  another 

^  Dissent  steadily  declined  after  the  Restoration. 
^  All  Anne's  children  had  died  before  she  ascended  the 
throne. 

S 


282  DANIEL  DEFOE 

Dutch  Turn  may  make  the  Hopes  of  it  ridi- 
culous, and  the  Practice  impossible :  Be  the 
House  of  our  future  Princes  never  so  well 
inclin'd,  they  will  be  Foreigners;  and  many 
Years  will  be  spent  in  suiting  the  Genius  of 
Strangei-s  to  the  Crown,  and  to  the  Interests 
of  the  Nation ;  and  how  many  Ages  it  may  be 
before  the  English  Throne  be  fill'd  with  so 
much  Zeal  and  Candour,  so  much  Tenderness, 
and  hearty  Affection  to  the  Church,  as  we  see 
it  now  cover 'd  with,  who  can  imagine. 

'Tis  high  time  then  for  the  Friends  of  the 
Church  of  England,  to  think  of  Building 
up,  and  Establishing  her,  in  such  a  manner, 
that  she  may  be  no  more  Invaded  by 
Foreigners,  nor  Divided  by  Factions,  Schisms, 
and  Error. 

If  this  cou'd  be  done  by  gentle  and  easy 
Methods,  I  shou'd  be  glad,  but  the  Wound 
is  coroded,  the  Vitals  begin  to  mortifie,  and 
nothing  but  Amputation  of  Members  can  com- 
pleat  the  Cure;  all  the  ways  of  Tenderness 
and  Compassion,  all  perswasive  Arguments 
have  been  made  use  of  in  vain. 

The  Humour  of  the  Dissenters  has  so 
encreas'd   among  the   People,  that   they  hold 


DANIEL  DEFOE  283 

the  Church  in  Defiance,  and  the  House  of 
God  is  an  Abomination  among  them :  Nay, 
they  have  brought  up  their  Posterity  in  such 
pre-possest  Aversions  to  our  Holy  ReHgion, 
that  the  ignorant  Mob  think  we  are  all 
Idolaters,  and  Worshippers  of  Baal;  and 
account  it  is  a  Sin  to  come  within  the  Walls 
of  our  Churches. 

The  primitive  Christians  were  not  more  shie 
of  a  Heathen-Temple,  or  of  Meat  offer 'd  to 
Idols,  nor  the  Jews  of  Swine's-Flesh,  than 
some  of  our  Dissenters  are  of  the  Church,  and 
the  Divine  Semce  solemnized  therein. 

This  Obstinacy  must  be  rooted  out  with  the 
Profession  of  it,  while  the  Generation  are  left 
at  liberty  daily  to  affront  God  Almighty,  and 
Dishonour  his  Holy  Worship,  we  are  wanting 
in  our  Duty  to  God,  and  our  Mother  the 
Church  of  England. 

How  can  we  answer  it  to  God,  to  the 
Church,  and  to  our  Posterity,  to  leave  them 
entangled  with  Fanaticisme,  Error,  and 
Obstinacy,  in  the  Bowels  of  the  Nation;  to 
leave  them  an  Enemy  in  their  Streets,  and 
in  time  may  involve  them  in  the  same  Crimes, 
and  endanger  the  utter  Extirpation  of  Religion 
in  the  Nation. 


284  DANIEL  DEFOE 

What's  the  Difference  betwixt  this,  and 
being  subjected  to  the  Power  of  the  Church 
of  Rome,  from  whence  we  have  reform'd?  If 
one  be  an  extreme  on  one  Hand,  and  one  on 
another,  'tis  equally  destructive  to  the  Truth, 
to  have  Errors  settled  among  us,  let  them 
be  of  what  Nature  they  will. 

Both  are  Enemies  of  our  Church,  and  of  our 
Peace,  and  why  shou'd  it  not  be  as  criminal 
to  admit  an  Enthusiast  as  a  Jesuit?  Why 
shou'd  the  Papist  with  his  Seven  Sacraments 
be  worse  than  the  Quaker  w^ith  no  Sacraments 
at  all  ?    Why  shou'd  Religious-houses  be  more 

intoUerable   than   Meeting-houses Alas  the 

Church  of  England  !  What  with  Popery  on 
one  Hand,  and  Schismaticks  on  the  other ; 
how  has  she  been  Crucify'd  between  two 
Thieves. 

Now  let  us  Critcifie  the  Thieves.  Let  her 
Foundations  be  establish'd  upon  the  Destruc- 
tion of  her  Enemies :  The  Doors  of  Mercy 
being  always  open  to  the  returning  Part  of 
the  deluded  People :  Let  the  Obstinate  be 
rul'd  with  the  Rod  of  Iron. 

Let  aU  true  Sons  of  so  Holy  an  Oppressed 
Mother,  exasperated  by  her  Afflictions,  harden 
tlieir  Hearts  against  those  who  have  oppress'd 
her. 


DANIEL  DEFOE  285 

And  may  God  Almighty  put  it  into  the 
Hearts  of  all  the  Friends  of  Truth,  to  lift  up 
a  Standard  against  Pride  and  Antichrist,  that 
the  Posterity  of  the  Sons  of  Error  niay  he 
rooted  out  from  the  Face  of  this  Laud  for 
ever. — 


XIV 

CHARLES  LESLIE 

[Charles  Leslie  the  Nonjuror  (1650-1722),  one  of 
the  ablest  and  most  prolific  of  pamphleteers,  dis- 
tinguished himself  by  his  controversies  with  the 
Quakers  {Snake  in  the  Grass,  dx.)  and  Deists  {Short 
and  Easy  Method  with  the  Deists),  and  indeed  with 
most  other  people  who  disagreed  with  him.  He 
also  wrote  several  larger  books  both  on  political 
and  religious  subjects.  He  was  suspended  for  re- 
fusing the  oath  of  allegiance  at  the  Revolution. 
In  1710  a  warrant  was  issued  for  his  arrest,  and 
next  year  he  escaped  to  the  Court  of  St  Germains, 
but  returned  soon  as  'Mr  White' :  in  1713  he  went 
again  to  the  Pretender.  The  Non- jurors  clung 
fondly  to  the  hope  that  the  Pretender  would  change 
his  religion,  and  Leslie  was  commissioned  by  them 
to  win  him  over  to  the  English  Church.  Had 
Leslie  succeeded  there  is  little  doubt  but  that 
England  would  have  welcomed  a  Stuart  king  on 
the  death  of  Anne. 

Leslie  was  warmly  praised  by  Swift,  and  Dr 
Johnson  said  of  him  that  he  was  '  a  reasoner  who 
was  not  to  be  reasoned  against.'  He  is  an  inter- 
esting type  of  the  extreme  political  High  Church- 
man whom^Defoe  parodied  in  the  Shortest  Way  and 
answered  in  the  Challenge  of  Peace.] 
286 


CHARLES  LESLIE  287 

FROM 

*THE  WOLF  STRIPT 

of  His  Shepherd's  Cloathing.' 

By  One  Call'd  an  High-Church-Man 

1704. 

A  Character  of  the  High  and  the  Low-Church- 
Men. 

No  Man  thinks  it  a  Disparagement  to  be 
High,  that  is,  Zealous  in  any  good  thing,  in 
our  Duty  to  God,  in  our  Love  to  our  Countrey, 
or  to  our  Friend.  To  be  called,  Low,  that  is 
Lidifferent  in  such  things,  is  the  greatest  Re- 
flection we  can  put  upon  any  Body.  How 
then  can  the  Name  of  a  Low-Church-man  be 
Honourable,  when  the  Name  of  a  Low-Friend 
is  so  contemptible?  To  have  a  Low  Regard 
for  the  Church,  or  to  wish  her  Low  !  In  what 
Sense  can  this  be  Justified'^  Or  the  other 
Condemned,  of  being  an  High-Chiirch-man  ? 
When  Love  begins  to  run  Low,  then  comes 
Lidiffei^ency,  and  generally  after  that  an 
Aversion  ! 

But  how  can  we  Love  one,  and  Hate  another, 
for  the  self  same  thing  ?  To  cry  out  upon  the 
Papists,  and  yet  justifie  the  Dissenters  for  the 
same  Doctrines?  To  have  no  Mercy  upon 
James  Lainez,  the  General  of  the  Jesuits  for 


288  CHARLES  LESLIE 

his  Speech  at  the  Council  of  Trent,  against 
the  Divine  Right  of  Episcopacy:  And  yet  to 
Justifie  the  Dissenters,  and  make  it  the  Hon- 
ourable Character  of  a  Low-Church-Man,  to 
repeat  over  his  Arguments  ?  The  Presbyterians 
have  borrow'd  all  their  Arguments  against 
Episcopacy  from  the  Jesuits  and  the  Regulars,^ 
of  the  Church  of  Rome,  who  are  nothing  else 
but  Popish  Presbyterians;  and  the  Presby- 
terians are  Protestant  Jesuits.  For  what  is 
Presbytery,  but  Presbyters  without  Bishops? 
And  such  are  the  Regulars. 

This  is  as  to  the  Church.  Then  for  the 
iSYrt^^,  the  Deposing  Doctrine,  and  placing  the 
Power  in  the  People,  is  but  the  Spittle  of  the 
Papists  and  Jesuits,  which  our  Wliigs  and 
Dissenters  have  LicA^'^  up  (which  is  well  ob- 
serv'd  by  the  Lord  Bishop  of  Sarum,  See  here- 
after), p.  55.  Concerning  their  Agreement  in 
this,  and  many  other  Popish  Doctrines,  see 
Lysimachus  Nlcanor,  Printed  1640.  In  answer 
to  the  many  Treasonable  Pamphlets  then  spread 
abroad,  as  Preparatives  for  the  Rebellion  that 
did  follow.  And  when  the  like  Pamphlets  came 
Abroad  again,  in  the  years  1681,  and  1682,  to 

^  Regulars  are  members  of  the  religious  orders.  Leslie 
means  that  those  orders,  and  especially  the  Jesuits,  have 
been  prone  to  establish  an  imperium  in  iynperio,  dominat- 
ing the  Bishops,  and  even  the  Pope  himself. 


CHARLES  LESLIE  289 

make  way  for  the  Bye-house  Conspiracy  (as 
hereafter  is  Observ'd)  then  this  of  their  Agree- 
ment with  the  Papists  in  these  Treasonable 
Tenets  was  again  expos'd,  as  by  Dugdale  ^  in 
his  Short  Vieiv  of  the  late  Trouble  in  England , 
Printed,  1651,  p.  16,  17,  &c.,  by  Dr  Felling 
in  his  Apostat  Protestant,^  Printed  1682,  and 
Reprinted  1683.  And  by  others,  in  Answer  to 
these  Wicked  Pamphlets  sent  forth  to  sow 
Sedition,  And  have  not  been  Reply  d  to  by 
the  Dissenters,  for  they  Cannot.  It  is  Matter 
of  Fact,  as  Plain  as  the  Sun  at  Noon-Day ! 
Yet  all  this  hinders  not  their  re-printing  the 
same  their  Hellish  Doctrines,  now  at  this  time, 
more  vehemently,  and  in  greater  Numbers  than 
ever.  For  what  End,  may  be  guess'd  at  by 
what  follows.  Principles  produce  Practises, 
as  the  Cause  does  its  Effect. 

Yet  there  is  a  Difference  to  be  made,  as  of 
different  Soils,  which  produce  not  the  same 
Crop,  tho'  soivd  with  the  same  Seed.  Some  are 
Evil  Natures,  which  drink  in  the  Diabolical 
Seed  with  Greediness ;  and  bring  forth  Fruit  of 
Blood,  Massacre,  and  all  Wickedness.     Others 

^  Sir  William,  author  of  the  Monasticcu.  The  t^hort 
Vieiu  is  a  vehement  and  one-sided  book. 

-  The  Apostat  was  called  forth  by  the  reprinting  of  the 
Jesuit  Parsons'  Conference  about  the  Succession  of  the 
Crown.     It  is  an  attack  on  the  Exclusion  Bill. 


290  CHARLES  LESLIE 

again  are  of  Good  and  Gentle  Natures,  who 
may  be  di-awn  in  by  Comimnyy  Education,  or 
Weakness  of  Judgment,  not  fore-seeing  the 
Consequence  of  such  Principles,  and  carry'd 
away  with  the  Fair  Pretences  and  Specious 
Colours  that  are  put  upon  them.  But  when 
they  come  to  see  the  Dismal  Effects,  are  struck 
with  Horrour,  and  give  back !  And  then  are 
Prosecuted  by  their  own  Party  worse  than 
their  open  and  avow'd  Enemies,  See  here- 
after. 

These  are  men  for  whom  we  have  great 
Tenderness  and  Compassion,  and  endeavour  to 
pluck  them  out  of  the  Fire,  by  a  Fair  and  Free 
Representation  of  the  Fallacies  of  those  Prin" 
ciples  they  have  Imbib'd !  And  of  the  former 
wicked  Practises  of  that  Faction,  in  which  they 
are  Engag'd,  and  never  yet  fail'd  to  Execute, 
when  it  was  in  their  Power. 

This  is  the  Method  which  the  Higli-Cliurch- 
Men  do  use,  towards  reclaiming  of  these  well- 
meaning,  but  mis-led  People.  And  this  is  the 
Reason  why  that  Opprobrious  Name  (as  some 
think  it)  is  given  to  them,  because  they  Repre- 
sent things  Highly,  that  is,  Fully  true.  They 
Abate  not,  nor  Moderate,  nor  Mollifie,  that  is, 

they  will  not  Lye. First,  to  strengthen  the 

Hands  of  the   Wicked  and  Designing  of  the 


CHARLES  LESLIE  291 

Faction;  and  to  put  us  from  off  our  Gvxjbvd 
against  them :  And,  in  the  next  Place,  to  give 
the  as  yet  Innocent  and  Deluded  among  them, 
a  less  Abhorrent  Notion  of  them,  and  to  sow 
Pillows  under  their  Arms;  which  is  the  Method 
taken  by  the  Loiv-Church  to  Reclaim  them ! 
And  this  they  call  Moderation, 

But  they  go  farther.  They  Re-present  the 
Dissenters  as  a  Conscientious  and  Loyal  People, 
that  have  no  ill  Designs  either  agamst  the 
Church  or  the  Monarchy, 

On  the  other  hand,  they  draw  such  a  Picture 
of  the  High-Church,  as  to  Fright  all  Mankind 
from  Coming  near  them !  They  make  them  the 
most  Profligate  Villains  that  ever  the  Earth 
bore.  Men  of  DehaucJid  Consciences,  of  the 
Grossest  Im- Moralities,  &c.,  as  you  will  see  in 
what  follows,  p.  \7,  18. 

They  Profess  themselves  Ready  to  joyn  with 
the  Dissenters  in  Confederacy  against  the  High- 
Church,  that  is,  They  have  done  it  already ! 

They  think  Episcojoacy  an  Indifferent  thing, 
and  only  a  State-point  amongst  Us. 

They  have  no  Notion  of  God's  having 
Appointed  any  Order  of  Man  to  Repu'esent 
Him,  to  Transact  betwixt  Him,  and  the  People, 
to  Sign  and  Seal  His  Covenants  with  them,  and 
to  Bless  in  His  Name.     Or,  they  think,  that 


292  CHARLES  LESLIE 

any  One  may  take  this  Honour  to  Himself,  or 
be  Impowerd  thereunto  by  the  People,  by  any 
the  Vilest  of  them  !  They  think  that  this  can 
be  Conferr'd  without  Episcopal  Ordination, 
which  has  been  from  the  Apostles  Days  the 
Way  of  the  Whole  Earth ;  And  the  first  who 
Broach'd  the  Contrary,  Aerius  an  Ambitious 
Preshyter,  in  the  Fourth  Century,  was  Con- 
demn'd  as  an  Heretick.  Whose  Heresie  is  Now 
Reviv'd  amongst  Us. 

They  think  the  Christian  Priesthood  is  not, 
so  Sacred  a  thing  as  was  that  of  the  Levitical, 
And  that  the  Sin  of  Korah  cannot  be  Re-Acted 
under  the  Gospel,  tho'  St  Jude  Speaks  of  those 
Vv  ho  Perish  in  it ;  And  all  the  Fathers  after 
who  wi'ote  of  Schism, 

They  have  Reduc'd  every  thing  in  the  Church, 
both  as  to  her  Government,  Lyturgie,  and  all 
Holy  Offices,  all  Outward  Institutions,  to  a 
WILD  Enthusiasm,^  to  what  they  call  the  Life 
of  God  in  the  Soul,  to  the  QUAKER  Light 
Within,  to  all  the  Extravagancies  of  the 
POPISH  3Iysticks. 

They  have  left  no  one  Stone  upon  another 
in  the  Church,  as  an  Outward  Visible  Society, 

^  '  Enthusisam '  does  not  here  bear  the  modern  sense 
of  zeal,  but  it  is  nearer  to  the  literal  meaning  {en.  theos), 
and  may  be  rendered  '  the  fanaticism  inspired  by  a  belief 
in  the  God  within  one  '  (p.  215). 


CHARLES  LESLIE 


293 


Which  cannot  be  Vydthout  Government,  And 
that  fix'd  and  Settled.  Where  the  Govern- 
ment is  PraecariouSy  that  Society  must  be  in 
a  Tottering  Condition.  But  these  ^len  make 
nothing  of  Christianity  but  a  Sect,  like  that 
of  an  Epicurean,  a  Stoick,  or  an  Academick 
among  the  Philosophers,  to  which  there  go's 
no  More  than  to  be  of  this  or  that  Opinion; 
and  thej  might  Change  from  One  to  Another, 
ten  times  a  Day,  or,  as  a  Man  may  Change  his 
Lawyer  or  Physician,  without  any  Hazard  or 
Penalty;  So  this  Book  of  Moderation  says 
(as  you  will  see  hereafter)  a  Man  may  Change 
Churches,  and  go  from  One  to  Another,  Pro- 
vided only  that  Christianity  be  Taught,  that 
is  indeed,  They  know  nothing  of  a  Church,  as 
a  Society,  with  Authority  oi  Admitting  or  Ex- 
cluding ;  for  who  can  Excommunicate  me  from 
my  own  Thoughts  I  And  if  I  Believe  the 
General  Doctrines  of  Christianity,  I  am  of 
the  Church,  in  these  Mens  Opinion,  tho'  I 
stand  Excommunicated  from  all  the  Churches 
in  the  World,  and  that  for  my  open  Contempt 
of  theii'  Authority,  and  setting  up  what  Schis- 
matical  Congregations  I  please,  in  Opposition 
to  them ;  and  thinking  that  I  and  my  Fellows 
can  Constitute  a  Church  by  our  selves,  as  well 
as  any  of  them. 


294  CHARLES  LESLIE 

These  are  the  Men  of  Moderation!  Of 
Large  Thoughts!  Of  Universal  Comprehen- 
sive Charity! 

But  if  any  one  Talks  of  the  Church,  of  any 
Authority  Committed  to  Her  by  Christ,  of  any 
Governours  or  Government  Settl'd  by  Him,  the 
Deduc'd  through  the  whole  Christian  World, 
all  the  way  down  from  the  Days  of  the  Apostles  ; 
or  speaks  of  any  Schism  made  against  this 
Church,  or  Disobedience  to  her,  all  such  are 
call'd  High-Church-Men,  Incendiaries,  Enemies 
to  Peace  and  Union,  and  not  fit  to  Live  upon 
the  Earth  !  And  as  such  they  are  Treated  in 
this  Book  of  Moderation. 

But  the  High-Church,  notwithstanding  of 
all  the  Scandals  cast  upon  them,  are  far  from 
the  Men  they  are  Represented  to  be ;  there 
are  None  more  Desirous  of  the  Beconcilation 
of  the  Dissenters,  because  None  are  so  Sen- 
sible of  the  Dangerous  State  that  they  are  in, 
by  their  Schism  from  Episcopacy,  which  is, 
from  the  Catholick- Church,  of  all  Ages.  And 
they  would  go  as  far  as  Possible  to  Purchase 
their  Union  with  the  Church  upon  any  Terms 
that  wou'd  not  Throw  our  selves  out  of  it  with 
them ;  that  wou'd  Leave  any  Notion  of  a 
Church  in  being.  And  it  is  the  Labours  of 
the  High-Church  which  have,  with  the  Good 


CHARLES  LESLIE  295 

Blessing  of  God,  brought  over  so  many  of 
them  to  the  Church,  by  Representing  their 
Errors  to  them.  But  Soothing  them  where 
they  are,  is  not  the  Way  to  do  it.  It  is  the 
greatest  Hindrance  can  be  to  them,  by  making 
them  Believe  that  they  are  in  a  Safe  Condition ; 
why  then  shou'd  they  Change?  Indeed  the 
Apparent  Designs  of  the  Low  Church  are  to 
bring  Us  to  Them,  not  Them  to  Us. 


XV 

JONATHAN  SWIFT 

[Swift  was  born  1667,  and  died  1745 ;  he  was  of 
English  extraction,  though  born  and  educated  in 
Dublin.  As  a  pamphleteer  it  may  be  said  of  him 
that  no  man  exercised  more  influence  by  this  kind 
of  writing  than  he ;  and,  as  he  was  our  greatest 
satirist,  so  he  was  our  greatest  pamphleteer.  It 
need  only  be  added  here  that  the  popular  idea  of 
his  irreligion  is  without  foundation.  Like  other 
wits  he  was  often  misunderstood ;  but  it  is  known 
that  he  made  himself  a  little  oratory  in  the  Deanery 
at  Dublin,  and  made  considerable  use  of  it  for 
private  devotion.  To  him  also  belongs  the  credit 
of  having  first  aroused  public  attention  to  the 
absence  of  churches  in  the  new  parts  of  London, 
'  where  a  single  minister  with  one  or  two  curates 
has  the  care  sometimes  of  20,000  souls  incumbent 
on  him,'  and  'five  parts  out  of  six  of  the  people 
are  absolutely  hindered  from  hearing  divine  ser- 
vice.'] 

AN  ARGUMENT  to  prove,  that 

THE    ABOLISHING    OF    CHRISTIANITY 

IN  England,  May,  as  Things  now  stand,  be 

attended  with  some  Inconveniences,  and 

perhaps  not  produce  those  many  Good 

Effects  proposed  thereby. 

London,  1/08. 


JONATHAN  SWIFT  297 

I  AM  very  sensible  what  a  Weakness  and  Pre- 
sumption it  is,  to  reason  against  the  general 
Humour  and  Disposition  of  the  World.  I 
remember  it  was  with  great  Justice,  and  a  due 
Regard  to  the  Freedom  both  of  the  Publick 
and  the  Press,  forbidden  upon  several  Penalties 
to  Write,  or  Discourse,  or  lay  Wagers  against 

the  1  even   before   it   was  confirmed   by 

Parliament,  because  that  was  look'd  upon  as 
a  Design,  to  oppose  the  Current  of  the  People ; 
which,  besides  the  Folly  of  it,  is  a  manifest 
Breach  of  the  Fundamental  Law,  that  makes 
this  Majority  of  Opinion  the  Voice  of  God.  In 
like  manner,  and  for  the  very  same  Reasons, 
it  may  perhaps  be  neither  safe  nor  prudent 
to  argue  against  the  Abolishing  of  Christianity ; 
at  a  Juncture,  when  all  Parties  seem  so  unani- 
mously determined  upon  the  Point,  as  we 
cannot  but  allow  from  their  Actions,  Discourses^ 
and  their  Writings.  However,  I  know  not  how, 
whether  from  the  Affectation  of  Singularity,  or 
the  Perverseness  of  Human  Nature,  but  so  it 
unhappily  falls  out,  that  I  cannot  be  entirely 
of  this  Opinion.  Nay,  though  I  were  sure  an 
Order  were  issued  out  for  my  immediate  Prose- 
cution by  the  Attorney-General,  I  should  stiU 
confess,  that  in   the   present   Posture   of  our 

^  Union  is  the  missing  word. 
T 


298  JONATHAN  SWIFT 

AiFairs  at  home  or  abroad,  I  do  not  yet  see 
the  absolute  Necessity  of  extu'pating  the  Chris- 
tian Religion  from  among  us. 

This,  perhaps,  may  appear  too  great  a  Para- 
dox, even  for  our  wise  and  paradoxical  Age 
to  endure ;  therefore  I  shall  handle  it  with  all 
Tenderness,  and  with  the  utmost  Deference  to 
that  great  and  profound  Majority  which  is  of 
another  Sentiment. 

And  yet  the  Curious  may  please  to  observe, 
how  much  the  Genius  of  a  Nation  is  liable  to 
alter  in  half  an  Age.  I  have  heard  it  affirmed 
for  certain  by  some  very  old  People,  that  the 
contrary  Opinion  was,  even  in  their  Memories, 
as  much  in  Vogue  as  the  other  is  now ;  and. 
That  a  Project  for  the  AboHshing  of  Christi- 
anity would  then  have  appeared  as  singular,  and 
been  thought  so  absurd,  as  it  would  beat  this 
Time,  to  Write  or  Discourse  in  its  Defence. 

Therefore  I  freely  own,  That  all  Appear- 
ances are  against  me.  The  System  of  the 
Gospel,  after  the  Fate  of  other  Systems,  is 
generally  antiquated  and  exploded;  and  the 
Mass  or  Body  of  the  Common  People,  among 
whom  it  seems  to  have  had  its  latest  Credit, 


JONATHAN  SWIFT  299 

are  now  grown  as  much  ashamed  of  it  as  their 
Betters.  Opinions,  like  Fashions,  always  de- 
scending from  those  of  Quality  to  the  Middle 
Sort,  and  from  thence  to  the  Vulgar,  where 
at  length  they  are  dropt  and  vanish.^ 

But  here  I  would  not  be  mistaken,  and 
must  therefore  be  so  bold  as  to  borrow  a 
Distinction  from  the  Writers  on  the  other 
side,  when  they  make  a  Difference  betwixt 
Nominal  and  Real  Trinitarians,  I  hope  no 
Reader  imagines  me  so  weak  to  stand  up  in 
the  Defence  of  Real  Christianity,  such  as  used  in 
Primitive  Times  (if  we  may  beUeve  the  Authors 
of  those  Ages)  to  have  an  Influence  upon  Mens 
Belief  and  Actions :  To  offer  at  the  Restoring 
of  That  would  indeed  be  a  wild  Project ; 
it  would  be  to  digg  up  Foundations,  to 
destroy  at  one  Blow  all  the  Wit,  and  half  the 
Learning  of  the  Kingdom ;  to  break  the  entire 

^  Swift  hardly  exaggerates  the  unbelief  of  his  age. 
Compare  the  famous  passage  in  Bishop  Butler's  Adver- 
tisement to  the  ^?ia%2/ twenty  years  later  (1736).  'It 
is  come,  I  know  not  how,  to  be  taken  for  granted,  by 
many  persons,  that  Christianity  is  not  so  much  as  a 
subject  of  inquiry  ;  but  that  it  is  now  at  length  discovered 
to  be  fictitious,'  &c.  Archbishop  Wake  and  Bishop 
Warburton  spoke  quite  as  strongly  about  the  general 
unfidelity  ;  while  Voltaire  wrote  that  there  was  only  just 
enough  religion  left  in  England  to  distinguish  Tories  who 
had  little  from  Whigs  who  had  less. 


300  JONATHAN  SWIFT 

Frame  and  Constitution  of  Things,  to  ruin 
Trade,  extinguish  Arts  and  Sciences,  with  the 
Professors  of  them ;  in  short,  to  turn  our 
Courts,  Exchanges,  and  Shops,  into  Desarts ; 
and  would  be  full  as  absurd  as  the  Proposal 
of  Horace  where  he  advises  the  Romans,  all 
in  a  Body,  to  leave  their  City,  and  seek  a 
new  Seat  in  some  remote  Part  of  the  World, 
by  way  of  a  Cure  for  the  Corruption  of  their 
Manners. 

Therefore  I  think  this  Caution  was  in  it 
self  altogether  unnecessary  (which  I  have 
inserted  only  to  prevent  all  Possibility  of 
CavilHng)  since  every  candid  Reader  will  easily 
understand  my  Discourse  to  be  intended  only 
in  Defence  of  Nommal  Christianity,  the  other 
having  been  for  some  time  wholly  laid  aside  by 
general  Consent,  as  utterly  inconsistent  with 
all  our  present  Schemes  of  Wealth  and  Power. 

But  why  we  should  therefore  cast  off  the 
Name  and  Title  of  Christians,  although  the 
general  Opinion  and  Resolution  be  so  Violent 
for  it,  I  confess  I  cannot  (with  Submission) 
apprehend  the  Consequence  necessary.  How- 
ever, since  the  Undertakers  propose  such 
Wonderful  Advantages  to  the  Nation  by  this 


JONATHAN  SWIFT  301 

Project,  and  advance  many  plausable  Ob- 
jections against  the  Systems  of  Christianity, 
I  shall  briefly  consider  the  Strength  of  both, 
fairly  allow  them  their  greatest  Weight,  and 
offer  such  Answers  as  I  think  most  reasonable. 
After  which  I  will  beg  leave  to  shew  what 
Inconveniences  may  possibly  happen  by  such 
an  Innovation,  in  the  present  Posture  of  our 
Affairs. 

First,  One  great  Advantage  proposed  by 
the  abolishing  of  Christianity  is.  That  it  would 
very  much  enlarge  and  establish  Liberty  of 
Conscience,  that  great  Bulwark  of  our  Nation, 
and  of  the  Protestant  Religion,  which  is  still 
too  much  limited  by  Priest-craffc,  notwithstand- 
ing all  the  good  Intentions  of  the  Legislature, 
as  we  have  lately  found  by  a  Severe  Instance. 
For  it  is  confidently  reported,  that  two  Young 
Gentlemen  of  real  Hopes,  bright  Wit,  and 
profound  Judgment,  who^  upon  a  thorough 
Examination  of  Causes  and  Effects,  and  by 
the  meer  Force  of  natural  Abilities,  without 
the  least  Tincture  of  Learning,  having  made 
a  Discovery,  that  there  was  no  God,  and 
generously  communicating  their  Thoughts  for 
the   Good   of  the   Publick;    were  some   time 

^  The  IVho  is  redundant. 


302  JONATHAN  SWIFT 

ago,  by  an  unparallelled  Severity,  and  upon  I 
know  not  what  obsolete  Law,  broke  for  Blas- 
phemy. And  as  it  hath  been  wisely  observed, 
if  Prosecution  once  begins,  no  Man  alive  knows 
how  far  it  may  reach,  or  where  it  will  end. 

In  answer  to  all  which,  with  Deference  to 
wiser  Judgments,  I  think  this  rather  shews 
the  Necessity  of  a  Nominal  Religion  among 
us.  Great  Wits  love  to  be  free  with  the 
highest  Objects  ;  and  if  they  cannot  be  allowed 
a  God  to  revile  or  renounce,  they  will  speak 
Evil  of  Dignities,  abuse  the  Government,  and 
reflect  upon  the  Ministry,  which  I  am  sui-e 
few  will  deny  to  be  of  much  more  pernicious 
Consequence,  according  to  the  Saying  of 
Tiberius,  Deoriim  Offensa  Diis  curce.  As  to 
the  particular  Fact  related,  I  think  it  is  not 
fair  to  argue  fi'om  one  Instance,  perhaps 
another  cannot  be  produced,  yet  (to  the  Com- 
fort of  all  those  who  may  be  apprehensive 
of  Persecution)  Blasphemy  we  know  is  freely 
spoke  a  Million  of  Times  in  every  CofFee-House 
and  Tavern,  or  where-ever  else  good  Company 
meet.  It  must  be  allowed  indeed,  that  to 
Break  an  English  Free-born  Officer  only  for 
Blasphemy,  was,  to  speak  the  gentlest  of  such 
an   Action,    a    very   high    strain   of    absolute 


JONATHAN  SWIFT  303 

Power.  Little  can  be  said  in  Excuse  for  the 
General ;  Perhaps  he  was  afraid  it  might  give 
Offence  to  the  Allies,  among  whom,  for  ought 
we  know,  it  may  be  the  Custom  of  the  Country 
to  believe  a  God.  But  if  he  argued,  as  some 
have  done,  upon  a  mistaken  Principle,  that  an 
OflBcer  who  is  gTiilty  of  speaking  blasphemy, 
may  some  time  or  other  proceed  so  far  as  to 
raise  a  Mutiny,  the  Consequence  is  by  no 
means  to  be  admitted;  For,  surely,  the  com- 
mander of  an  English  Army  is  like  to  be  but 
ill  obeyed,  whose  Soldiers  fear  and  reverence 
him  as  little  as  they  do  a  Deity. 

It  is  further  objected  against  the  Gospel- 
System,  that  it  obliges  Men  to  the  Belief 
of  Things  too  difficult  for  free  Thinkers,  and 
such  as  have  shook  off  the  Prejudices  that 
usually  cling  to  a  confined  Education.  To 
which  I  answer,  that  Men  should  be  cautious 
how  they  raise  Objections  which  reflect  upon 
the  Wisdom  of  the  Nation.  Is  not  Every 
Body  fi'eely  allowed  whatever  he  pleases,  and 
to  pubHsh  his  Belief  to  the  World  whenever 
he  thinks  fit,  especially  if  it  serves  to  strengthen 
the  Party  which  is  in  the  Right  ?  Would  any 
indifferent  Foreigner,  who  should  read  the 
Tmmpery  lately  written   by  Asgill,    Tindally 


304  JONATHAN  SWIFT 

Toland,  Coward,^  and  Forty  more,  imagine  the 
Gospel  to  be  our  Rule  of  Faith,  and  to  be 
confirmed  by  Parliaments?  Does  any  Man 
either  Believe,  or  say  he  believes,  or  desu-e  to 
have  it  thought  that  he  says  he  Beheves,  one 
Syllable  of  the  Matter  ?  and  is  any  Man  worse 
received  upon  that  Score  ?  or  does  he  find  his 
Want  of  Nominal  Faith  a  Disadvantage  to 
him  in  the  Pursuit  of  any  Civil  or  MiUtary 
Employment  ?  What  if  there  be  an  old  dormant 
Statute  or  two  against  him,  are  they  not  now 
obsolete,  to  a  degree,  that  Empson  and  Dudley- 
themselves,  if  they  were  now  alive,  would 
find  it  impossible  to  put  them  in  Execution. 

It  is  likewise  urged,  that  there  are,  by  Com- 
putation, in  this  Kingdom,  above  Ten  thousand 
Parsons  whose  Revenues  added  to  those  of 
my  Lords  and  Bishops,  would  suffice  to  main- 
tain at  least  Two  hundred  Young  Gentle- 
men of  Wit  and  Pleasure,  and  Free-thinking 

1  Tindall  and  Toland,  the  Deist  writers,  made  a  great 
assault  against  revealed  religion  about  the  end  of  the 
XVII.  Century.  Toland  died  in  1696,  Tindall  in  1730 ; 
and  before  the  middle  of  the  Century  Deism  itself  had 
died  out.  Asgill,  born  1738,  was  an  eccentric  writer, 
much  praised  for  his  style  by  Coleridge,  who  wrote  a 
famous  book  to  prove  that  Death  was  not  obligatory  on 
Christians.  Coward  (d.  1725)  was  a  physician,  who 
wrote  heretical  books  about  the  immortality  of  the  soul. 

2  The  extortionate  agents  of  Henry  VII. 


JONATHAN  SWIFT  305 

Enemies  to  Priest-craft,  narrow  Principles, 
Pedantry,  and  Prejudices,  who  might  be  an 
Ornament  to  the  Court  and  To^vn :  And  then, 
again,  so  great  a  Number  of  able  [bodied] 
Divines  might  be  a  Recruit  to  our  Fleet  and 
Armies.  This  indeed  appears  to  be  a  Con- 
sideration of  some  Weight :  But  then,  on  the 
other  side,  several  Things  deserve  to  be  con- 
sidered likewise:  As,  First,  Whether  it  may 
not  be  thought  necessary  that  in  certain  Tracts 
of  Country,  like  what  we  call  Parishes,  there 
should  be  one  Man  at  least,  of  Abilities,  to 
Read  and  Write.  Then  it  seems  a  wrong 
Computation,  that  the  Revenues  of  the  Church 
throughout  this  Island  would  be  large  enough 
to  maintain  Two  hundred  Young  Gentlemen, 
or  even  half  that  Number,  after  the  present 
refined  way  of  Living,  that  is,  to  aUow  each 
of  them  such  a  Rent,  as  in  the  modern  Form 
of  Speech,  would  make  them  Easy.  But  still 
there  is  in  this  Project  a  greater  Mischief 
behind;  And  we  ought  to  beware  of  the 
Woman's  Folly,  who  killed  the  Hen  that  every 
Morning  laid  her  a  Golden  Egg.  For,  pray 
what  would  become  of  the  Race  of  Men  in 
the  next  Age,  if  we  had  nothing  to  trust  to 
besides  the  Scrophulous,  consumptive  Pro- 
ductions, furnished  by  our  Men   of  Wit  and 


3o6  JONATHAN  SWIFT 

Pleasure,  when  having  squandered  away  their 
Vigour,  Health,  and  Estates,  they  are  forced 
by  some  disagreeable  Marriage  to  piece  up 
their  broken  Fortunes,  and  entail  Rottenness 
and  Politeness  on  their  Posterity  ?  Now,  here 
are  Ten  Thousand  Persons,  reduced  by  the 
wise  Regulations  of  Henry  the  Eighth,  to  the 
Necessity  of  a  low  Dyet,  and  moderate  Exer- 
cise, who  are  the  only  great  Restorers  of  our 
Breed,  without  which  the  Nation  would  in  an 
Age  or  two  become  but  one  great  Hospital. 

Another  Advantage  proposed  by  the 
Abolishing  of  Christianity  is  the  clear  Gain 
of  one  Day  in  Seven,  which  is  now  entirely 
lost,  and  consequently  the  Kingdom  one 
Seventh  less  considerable  in  Trade,  Business, 
and  Pleasure ;  besides  the  Loss  to  the 
Publick  of  so  many  Stately  Structures,  now 
in  the  Hands  of  the  Clergy,  which  might 
be  converted  into  Play-Houses,  Exchanges, 
Market  -  Houses,  common  Dormitories,  and 
other  Publick  Edifices. 

I  Hope  I  shall  be  forgiven  a  hard  Word, 
if  I  call  this  a  perfect  Cavil.  I  readily  own, 
there  hath  been  an  old  Custom  Time  out  of 
Mind,  for  People  to  assemble  in  the  Churches 


JONATHAN  SWIFT  307 

every  Sunday,  and  that  Shops  are  still  fre- 
quently shut,  m  order  as  it  is  conceived,  to 
preserve  the  Memory  of  that  Antient  Practice ; 
but  how  this  can  prove  a  Hinderance  to  Busi- 
ness or  Pleasure,  is  hard  to  imagine.  What 
if  the  Men  of  Pleasure  are  forced  one  Day  in 
the  Week  to  Game  at  Home  instead  of  the 
Chocolate-House?  Are  not  the  Taverns  and 
Coffee-Houses  open?  Can  there  be  a  more 
convenient  Season  for  taking  a  Dose  of 
Physick?  Are  fewer  Claps  got  upon  Sun- 
days than  other  Days  ?  Is  not  that  the  chief 
Day  for  Traders  to  sum  up  the  Accounts  of 
the  Week,  and  for  Lawyers  to  prepare  their 
Briefs?  But  I  would  fain  know,  how  it  can 
be  pretended  that  the  Churches  are  misapplied. 
Where  are  more  Appointments  and  Rendez- 
vouzes  of  Gallantry?  Where  more  care  to 
appear  in  the  foremost  Box  with  greater 
Advantage  of  Dress  ?  Where  more  Meetings 
for  Business  ?  Where  more  Bargains  driven 
of  all  Sorts?  and.  Where  so  many  Con- 
veniencies  or  Incitements  to  Sleep  ? 

There  is  one  Advantage  greater  than  any 
of  the  fore-going,  proposed  by  the  Abolishing 
of  Christianity,  That  it  will  utterly  extinguish 
Parties  among  us,  by  removing  those  Factious 


3o8  JONATHAN  SWIFT 

Distinctions  of  High  and  Low  Chui'ch,  of 
Whig  and  Tory,  Presbyterian  and  Church  of 
England,  which  are  now  so  many  mutual 
Clogs  upon  Publick  Proceedings,  and  are  apt 
to  prefer  the  gratifying  themselves  or  depress- 
ing their  Adversaries,  before  the  most  im- 
portant Interest  of  the  State. 

I  CONFESS,  if  it  were  certain.  That  so  great 
an  Advantage  would  redound  to  the  Nation 
by  this  Expedient,  I  would  submit  and  be 
silent:  But  will  any  Man  say.  That  if  the 
Words,  Whoring,  Drinking,  Cheating,  Lying, 
Stealing,  were  by  Act  of  Parliament  ejected 
out  of  the  English  Tongue  and  Dictionaries, 
we  should  all  awake  next  Morning  Chaste  and 
Temperate,  Honest  and  Just,  and  Lovers  of 
Truth.  Is  this  a  fair  Consequence  ?  Or  if 
the  Physician  would  forbid  us  to  pronounce 
the  Words  Pox,  Gout,  Rheumatism,  and  Stone, 
would  that  Expedient  serve,  like  so  many 
Talismans,  to  destroy  the  Diseases  them- 
selves ?  Are  Party  and  Faction  rooted  in 
Mens  Hearts  no  deeper  than  Phrases  borrowed 
from  Religion,  or  founded  upon  no  firmer 
Principles?  And  is  our  Language  so  poor, 
that  we  cannot  find  other  Terms  to  express 
them?       Are     Envy,     Pride,     Avarice,     and 


JONATHAN  SWIFT  309 

Ambition,  such  ill  Nomenclators,  that  they 
cannot  furnish  Appellations  for  their  Owners  ? 
Will  not  Heydukes  and  Mamalukes,  Man- 
darins and  Patshaws,  or  any  other  Words, 
foi-med  at  Pleasure,  serve  to  distinguish  those, 
who  are  in  the  Ministry,  from  others  who 
would  be  in  it  if  they  could?  What,  for 
instance,  is  easier  than  to  vary  the  Form  of 
Speech,  and  instead  of  the  word  Church, 
make  it  a  question  in  PoHticks,  Whether  the 
Monument  be  in  Danger  ?i  Because  Reli- 
gion was  nearest  at  hand  to  furnish  a  few 
convenient  Plu-ases,  is  our  Invention  so 
barren,  we  can  find  no  others?  Suppose  for 
Argument  Sake,  That  the  Tories  favoured 
Margarita,'^  the  Whigs  Mrs  Tofts,  and  the 
Trimmers  Valentine;  Would  not  Margari- 
tians,  Toftians,  and  Valentinians,  be  very 
tolerable  Marks  of  Distinction?  The  Prasini 
and  Venetis,  Two  most  Yirident  Factions  in 
Italy,  began  (if  I  remember  right)  by  a  Dis- 
tinction of  Colours  in  Ribbons,  which  we 
might  do,  with  as  good  a  Grace,  about  the 

1  '  The  Church  in  Danger  '  was  a  common  political  cry 
in  the  earlier  part  of  the  XVIII.  Century.  It  had 
enormous  power,  as  e.g.  in  the  Sacheverell  episode,  1710. 

2  Francisca  Margherita  de  I'Epine,  Mrs  Tofts,  and 
the  alto  Valentino  Urbini  were  three  famous  opera 
singers  of  the  day. 


3IO  JONATHAN  SWIFT 

Dignity  of  the  Blve  and  the  Green  ;  which 
may  serve  as  properly  to  divide  the  Court, 
the  Parhament,  and  the  Kingdom  between 
them,  as  any  Terms  of  Art  whatsoever, 
borrowed  from  Religion.  And  therefore  I 
think  there  is  little  Force  in  this  Objection 
against  Christianity  or  Prospect  of  so  great 
an  Advantage  as  is  proposed  in  the  abolishing 
of  it. 

'Tis  again  objected,  as  a  very  absurd, 
ridiculous  Custom,  that  a  Set  of  Men  should 
be  suffered,  much  less  employed  and  hired, 
to  bawl  one  Day  in  Seven  against  the  Law- 
fulness of  those  Methods  most  in  use  towards 
the  Pursuit  of  Greatness,  Riches,  and  Pleasure, 
which  are  the  constant  Practice  of  all  Men 
alive  on  the  other  Six.  But  this  Objection 
is,  I  think,  a  little  unworthy  so  refined  an 
Age  as  ours.  Let  us  argue  this  Matter  calmly  : 
I  appeal  to  the  Breast  of  any  polite  Free- 
Thinker,  whether  in  the  Pursuit  of  gratifying 
a  predominant  Passion,  he  hath  not  always 
felt  a  wonderful  Incitement,  by  reflecting  it 
was  a  Thing  forbidden :  And  therefore  we 
see,  in  order  to  cultivate  this  Test,  the 
Wisdom  of  the  Nation  hath  taken  special 
Care,  that  the  Ladies  should  be  furnished  with 


JONATHAN  SWIFT  311 

Prohibited  Silks,  and  the  Men  with  Pro- 
hibited Wine:  And  indeed  it  were  to  be 
wished,  that  some  other  Prohibitions  were 
promoted,  in  order  to  improve  the  Pleasures 
of  the  Town,  which  for  want  of  such  Expedi- 
ence begin  already,  as  I  am  told,  to  flag  and 
grow  languid,  giving  way  daily  to  cruel  Inroads 
from  the  Spleen. 

'Tis  likewise  proposed  as  a  great  Advantage 
to  the  PubHck,  that  if  we  once  discard  the 
System  of  the  Gospel,  all  Religion  will  of 
Course  be  banished  for  ever,  and  consequently 
along  with  it,  those  grievous  Prejudices  of 
Education,  which  under  the  Names  of  Virtue, 
Conscience,  Honour,  Justice,  and  the  like,  are 
so  apt  to  disturb  the  Peace  of  Human  Minds, 
and  the  Notions  whereof  are  so  hard  to  be 
eradicated  by  right  Reason  or  Free-Thinking, 
sometimes  during  the  whole  Course  of  our 
Lives. 

Here  first  I  observe  how  difficult  it  is  to  get 
rid  of  a  Phrase  which  the  World  is  once  grown 
fond  of,  though  the  Occasion  that  first  pro- 
duced it,  be  entirely  taken  away.  For  some 
Years  past,  if  a  Man  had  but  an  iU-favoured 
Nose,   the   deep  Thinkers   of  the  Age  would 


312  JONATHAN  SWIFT 

some  way  or  other  contrive  to  impute  the 
Cause  to  the  Prejudice  of  his  Education. 
From  this  Fountain  were  said  to  be  derived 
all  om-  foolish  Notions  of  Justice,  Piety,  Love 
of  our  Country,  all  our  Opinions  of  God,  or  a 
Future  State,  of  Heaven,  Hell,  and  the  like. 
And  there  might  formerly  perhaps  have  been 
some  Pretence  for  this  Charge.  But,  so  effec- 
tual Care  hath  been  since  taken  to  remove 
those  Prejudices,  by  an  entire  Change  in  the 
Methods  of  Education,  (that  with  Honour  I 
mention  it  to  our  polite  Innovators)  the  Young 
Gentlemen,  who  are  now  on  the  Scene,  seem 
to  have  not  the  least  Tincture  left  of  those 
Infusions,  or  String  of  those  Needs,  and  by 
consequence  the  Reason  for  Abolishing 
Nominal  Christianity,  upon  that  Pretext,  is 
wholly  ceased. 

For  the  rest,  it  may  perhaps  admit  a  Con- 
troversy, whether  the  Banishing  all  Notions  of 
ReUgion  whatsoever,  would  be  convenient  for 
the  Vulgar.  Not  that  I  am  in  the  least  of 
Opinion  with  those  who  hold  Religion  to  have 
been  the  Invention  of  Politicians,  to  keep  the 
lower  Part  of  the  World  in  Awe  by  the  Fear 
of  Invisible  Powers ;  unless  Mankind  were 
then  very  different  from  what  it  is  now  :  For  I 


JONATHAN  SWIFT  313 

look  upon  the  Mass  or  Body  of  our  People 
here  in  England,  to  be  as  Free-Thinkers,  that  is 
to  say,  as  stanch  Unbehevers,  as  any  of  the 
highest  Rank.  But  I  conceive  some  scattered 
Notions  about  a  Superiour  Power,  to  be  of 
singular  Use  for  the  Common  People,  as  furnish- 
ing excellent  Materials  to  keep  Children  quiet, 
when  they  grow  peevish,  and  providing  Topicks 
of  Amusement  in  a  tedious  Winter  Night. 

Lastly,  It  is  proposed  as  a  singular  Advan- 
tage, that  the  AboUshing  of  Christianity  will 
very  much  contribute  to  the  Uniting  of  Pro- 
testants, by  enlarging  the  Terms  of  Com- 
munion so  as  to  take  in  all  Sorts  of  Dissenters, 
who  are  now  shut  out  of  the  Pale  upon  Account 
of  a  few  Ceremonies,  which  all  Sides  confess 
to  be  Things  indifferent :  That  this  alone  will 
effectually  answer  the  great  Ends  of  a  Scheme 
for  a  Comprehension,  by  opening  a  large 
noble  Gate,  at  which  all  Bodies  may  enter; 
whereas  the  Chaffering  with  Dissenters,  and 
dodging  about  this  or  the  other  Ceremony,  is 
but  like  opening  a  few  Wickets,  and  leaving 
them  at  jarr,  by  which  no  more  than  one 
can  get  in  at  a  Time,  and  that,  not  without 
stooping,  and  sideling,  and  squeezing  his 
Body. 

u 


314  JONATHAN  SWIFT 

To  all  this  I  answer,  That  there  is  one 
darling  Inclination  of  Mankind,  which  usually 
affects  to  be  a  Retainer  to  Religion,  though  she 
be  neither  its  Parent,  its  God-mother,  nor  its 
Friend ;  I  mean,  the  Spirit  of  Opposition,  that 
lived  long  before  Christianity,  and  can  easily 
subsist  without  it.  Let  us,  for  instance,  examine 
wherein  the  Opposition  of  Sectaries  among  us 
consist ;  we  shall  find  Christianity  to  have  no 
Share  in  it  at  all.  Does  the  Gospel  any  where 
prescribe  a  starched,  squeezed  Countenance,  a 
stiff  formal  Gate,  a  Singularity  of  Manners  and 
Habits,  or  any  affected  Forms  and  Modes  of 
Speech,  different  from  the  reasonable  Part  of 
Mankind  ?  Yet,  if  Christianity  did  not  lend 
its  Name,  to  stand  in  the  Gap,  and  to  employ  or 
divert  these  Humours,  they  must  of  Necessity 
be  spent  in  Contraventions  to  the  Laws  of  the 
Land,  and  Disturbance  of  the  Publick  Peace. 
There  is  a  Portion  of  Enthusiasm  assigned  to 
every  Nation,  which  if  it  hath  not  proper 
Objects  to  work  on,  will  burst  out,  and  set  all 
into  a  Flame.  If  the  Quiet  of  a  State  can  be 
bought  by  only  flinging  Men  a  few  Ceremonies 
to  devour,  it  is  a  Purchase  no  Avise  man  would 
refuse.  Let  the  Mastiffs  amuse  themselves 
about  a  Sheeps-Skin  stuffed  with  Hay,  pro- 
vided  it  will   keep  them  from  Worrying  the 


JONATHAN  SWIFT  315 

Flock.  The  Institution  of  Convents  abroad, 
seems  in  one  Point  a  Strain  of  great  Wisdom, 
there  being  few  Irregularities  in  humane  Pas- 
sions, which  may  not  have  recourse  to  vent 
themselves  in  some  of  those  Orders,  which  are 
so  many  Retreats  for  the  Speculative,  the 
Melancholy,  the  Proud,  the  Silent,  the  Politick, 
and  the  Morose,  to  spend  themselves,  and 
evaporate  the  Noxious  Particles;  for  each  of 
whom  we  in  this  Island  are  forced  to  provide 
a  several  Sect  of  Religion,  to  keep  them  quiet ; 
and  whenever  Christianity  shall  be  abolished, 
the  Legislature  must  find  some  other  Expedient 
to  employ  and  entertain  them.  For  what 
imports  it  how  large  a  Gate  you  open,  if 
there  will  be  always  left  a  Number,  who 
place  a  Pride  and  a  Merit  in  not  coming 
in? 

Having  thus  considered  the  most  important 
Objections  against  Christianity,  and  the  chief 
Advantages  proposed  by  the  Abolishing 
thereof;  I  shall  now  with  equal  Deference  and 
Submission  to  wiser  Judgments,  as  before, 
proceed  to  mention  a  few  Inconveniencies  that 
may  happen,  if  the  Gospel  should  be  repealed  ; 
which  perhaps  the  Projectors  may  not  have 
sufficiently  considered. 


3i6  JONATHAN  SWIFT 

And  first,  I  am  very  sensible  how  much  the 
gentlemen  of  Wit  and  Pleasure  are  apt  to 
murmur,  and  be  choqued  at  the  sight  of  so 
many  daggle-tailed  Parsons,  that  happen  to  fall 
in  their  Way,  and  offend  their  Eyes  ;  but  at  the 
same  time  these  wise  Reformers  do  not  consider, 
what  an  Advantage  and  Felicity  it  is,  for  great 
Wits  to  be  always  provided  with  Objects  of 
Scorn  and  Contempt,  in  order  to  exercise  and 
improve  their  Talents,  and  divert  their  Spleen 
from  falling  on  each  other  or  on  themselves, 
especially  when  all  this  may  be  done  without 
the  least  imaginable  Danger  to  their  Persons. 

And  to  urge  another  Ai'gument  of  a  parallel 
Nature.  If  Christianity  were  once  abolished, 
how  could  the  Free-Thinkers,  the  Strong 
Reasoners,  and  the  men  of  profound  Learning, 
be  able  to  find  another  Subject  so  calculated  in 
all  Points,  whereon  to  display  their  Abilities  ? 
What  wonderful  Productions  of  Wit  should  we 
be  deprived  of,  from  those  whose  Genius,  by 
continual  Practice,  hath  been  wholly  turned 
upon  RaiUery  and  Invectives  against  Religion, 
and  would  therefore  never  be  able  to  shine  or 
distinguish  themselves  upon  any  other  Subject  ? 
We  are  daily  complaining  of  the  great  Decline 
of  Wit  among  us,  and  would  we  take  away  the 


JONATHAN  SWIFT  317 

greatest,  perhaps  the  only  Topick  we  have  left  ? 
Who  would  ever  have  suspected  Asgill  for  a 
Wit,  or  ToLAND  for  a  Philosopher,  if  the  inex- 
haustible Stock  of  Christianity  had  not  been  at 
hand  to  provide  them  with  Materials  ?  What 
other  Subject  through  all  Art  or  Nature  could 
have  produced  Tindall  for  a  profound  Author, 
or  furnished  him  with  Readers  ?  It  is  the 
Wise  Choice  of  the  Subject  that  alone  adorns 
and  distinguishes  the  Writer.  For  had  a 
Hundred  such  Pens  as  these  been  employed  on 
the  side  of  Religion,  they  would  have  immedi- 
ately sunk  into  Silence  and  ObUvion. 

Nor  do  I  think  it  wholly  groundless,  or  my 
Fears  altogether  imaginary,  that  the  Abolishing 
of  Christianity  may  perhaps  bring  the  Church 
in  Danger,  or  at  least  put  the  Senate  to  the 
Trouble  of  another  Securing  Vote.  I  desire  I 
may  not  be  mistaken ;  I  am  far  from  presuming 
to  affirm,  or  to  think,  that  the  Church  is  in 
Danger  at  present,  or  as  Things  now  stand  ; 
but  we  know  not  how  soon  it  may  be  so,  when 
the  Christian  Religion  is  repealed.  As  plausible 
as  this  Project  seems,  there  may  be  a  danger- 
ous Design  lurk  under  it ;  Nothing  can  be 
more  notorious  than  that  the  Atheists,  Deists, 
Socinians,  Anti- Trinitarians,  and  other   Sub- 


3i8  JONATHAN  SWIFT 

divisions  of  Free-Thinkers,  are  Persons  of  little 
Zeal  for  the  present  Ecclesiastical  Establish- 
ment :  Their  declared  Opinion  is  for  repealing 
the  Sacramental  Test ;  they  are  very  indiflferent 
with  regard  to  Ceremonies ;  nor  do  they  hold 
the  Jus  Divinum  of  Episcopacy.  Therefore 
they  may  be  intended  as  one  Politick  Step 
towards  altering  the  Constitution  of  the 
Church  Established,  and  setting  up  Presbytery 
in  the  stead,  which  I  leave  to  be  further  con- 
sidered by  those  at  the  Helm. 

In  the  last  Place,  I  think  nothing  can  be 
more  plain  than,  that  by  this  Expedient,  we 
shall  run  into  the  Evil  we  chiefly  pretend  to 
avoid;  and  that  the  Abolishment  of  the 
Christian  Religion,  will  be  the  readiest  Course 
we  can  take  to  introduce  Popery.  And  I  am 
the  more  inclined  to  this  Opinion,  because  we 
know  it  has  been  the  constant  Practice  of  the 
Jesuits  to  send  over  Emissaries,  with  Instruc- 
tions to  personate  themselves  Members  of  the 
several  prevailing  Sects  amongst  us.  So  it  is 
recorded,  that  they  have  at  sundry  Times 
appeared  in  the  Guise  of  PreshyterianSj  Ana- 
baptists, Independents  and  Quakers,  according 
as  any  of  these  were  most  in  Credit ;  so,  since 
the  Fashion  hath  been  taken  up  of  exploding 


JONATHAN  SWIFT  319 

Religion,  the  Popish  Missionaries  have  not 
been  wanting  to  mix  with  the  Free-Thinkers ; 
among  whom,  Toland,  the  great  Oracle  of  the 
Anti- Christians,  is  an  Irish  Priest,  the  Son  of 
an  Irish  Priest;  and  the  most  learned  and 
ingenious  Author  of  a  Book  called  the  Rights 
of  the  Christian  Church,  was  in  a  proper 
Juncture  reconciled  to  the  Romish  Faith,  whose 
true  Son,  as  appears  by  a  hundred  Passages 
in  his  Treatise,  he  still  continues.  Perhaps  I 
could  add  some  others  to  the  Number;  but 
tlie  Fact  is  beyond  Dispute  and  the  Reasoning 
they  proceed  by  is  right :  For  supposing  Chris- 
tianity to  be  extinguished,  the  People  will  never 
be  at  Ease  tiU  they  find  out  some  other  Method 
of  Worship;  which  will  as  infallibly  produce 
Superstition,  as  this  will  end  in  Popery. 

And  therefore,  if  notwithstanding  all  I  have 
said,  it  still  be  thought  necessary  to  have  a  Bill 
brought  in  for  repealing  Christianity ;  I  would 
humbly  offer  an  Amendment;  that  instead  of 
the  Word,  Christianity,  may  be  put  Religion  in 
general,  which  I  conceive  will  much  better 
answer  all  the  good  Ends  proposed  by  the 
Projectors  of  it.  For,  as  long  as  we  leave  in 
being,  a  God  and  his  Providence,  with  all  the 
necessary    Consequences    which    curious    and 


320  JONATHAN  SWIFT 

inquisitive  Men  will  be  apt  to  draw  from  such 
Premisses,  we  do  not  strike  at  the  Root  of  the 
Evil,  though  we  should  ever  so  effectually 
annihilate  the  present  Scheme  of  the  Gospel. 
For,  of  what  use  is  Freedom  of  Thought,  if  it 
will  not  produce  Freedom  of  Action,  which  is 
the  sole  End,  how  remote  soever  in  Appear- 
ance, of  all  Objections  against  Christianity? 
And  therefore,  the  Free-Thinkers  consider  it  as 
a  sort  of  Edifice,  wherein  all  the  Parts  have 
such  a  mutual  Dependence  on  each  other,  that 
if  you  happen  to  pull  out  one  single  nail,  the 
whole  Fabrick  must  fall  to  the  Ground.  This 
was  happily  exprest  by  him  who  had  heard  of 
a  Text  brought  for  proof  of  the  Trinity,  which 
in  an  antient  Manuscript  was  differently  read ; 
He  thereupon  immediately  took  the  Hint,  and 
by  a  sudden  Deduction  of  a  long  Sories,^  most 
Logically  concluded ;  Wliy,  if  it  be  as  you  say, 
I  may  safely  Whore  and  Drink  on,  and  defy 
the  Parson.  From  which,  and  many  the  like 
Instances  easy  to  be  produced,  I  think  nothing 
can  be  more  manifest,  than  that  the  Quarrel  is 
not  against  any  particular  Points  of  hard 
digestion  in  the  Christian  System,  but  against 
Religion  in  general,  which  by  laying  Re- 
straints  on   human   Nature,  is    supposed   the 

^  Sorites. 


JONATHAN  SWIFT  321 

great  Enemy  to  the  Freedom  of  Thought  and 
Action. 


Upon  the  whole,  if  it  shall  still  be  thought 
for  the  Benefit  of  Church  and  State,  that 
Christianity  be  abolished ;  I  conceive  however, 
it  may  be  more  convenient  to  defer  Execution 
to  a  time  of  Peace,  and  not  Venture  in  this 
Conjuncture  to  disoblige  our  AlHes,  who  as 
it  fall  out,  are  all  Christians,  and  many  of 
them  by  the  Prejudices  of  their  Education  so 
bigotted,  as  to  place  a  sort  of  Pride  in  the 
Appellation.  If  upon  being  rejected  by  them, 
we  are  to  trust  to  an  Alliance  with  the  Turk, 
we  shall  find  our  selves  much  deceived:  For, 
as  he  is  too  remote,  and  generally  engaged 
in  War  with  the  Persian  Emperor,  so  his 
People  would  be  more  Scandalized  at  om' 
Infidelity,  than  our  Christian  Neighbours. 
For  they  are  not  only  strict  Observers  of 
Religious  Worship ;  but  what  is  worse, 
believe  a  God,  which  is  more  than  is  required 
of  us  even  while  we  preserve  the  Name  of 
Christians. 

To  conclude.  Whatever  some  may  think 
of  the  great  Advantages  to  Trade  by  this 
favourite  Scheme,  I  do  very  much  apprehend, 


322  JONATHAN  SWIFT 

that  in  Six  Months  time  after  the  Act  is 
past  for  the  Extirpation  of  the  Gospel  the 
Bank,  and  East-India  Stock,  may  fall  at 
least  One  per  Cent  And  since  that  is  Fifty 
times  more  than  ever  the  Wisdom  of  our  Age 
thought  fit  to  venture  for  the  Preservation 
of  Christianity,  there  is  no  Reason  we  should 
be  at  so  great  a  Loss  meerly  for  the  sake 
of  destroying  it. 


XVI 
WILLIAM   LAW 

[The  author  of  the  Serious  Call  lived  from  1686- 
1761,  and  the  Letters  to  the  Bishop  of  Bangor  were 
the  first  works  he  published.  They  were  called 
forth  by  the  famous  controversy  on  the  opinions  of 
Benjamin  Hoadly,  Bishop  of  Bangor,  which  is 
known  as  the  Bangorian  Controversy.  Hoadly 
had  given  expression,  in  a  sermon  preached  before 
the  King,  March  31, 1717,  to  extreme  Latitudinarian 
opinions,  and  the  fury  of  churchmen  descended  at 
once  upon  him.  In  the  dispute  which  followed 
there  was  a  prodigious  number  of  pamphlets,  nearly 
200  in  all,  written  by  53  different  writers.  The 
result  of  the  controversy  was  most  unfortunate  for 
the  Church  ;  for  the  Court,  siding  with  the  Bishop, 
had  recource  to  a  characteristic  act  of  Whig 
tyranny,  and  suppressed  Convocation,  destroying 
for  a  century  and  a  half  the  representative  voice 
of  the  Church. 

Law's  Letters  to  Hoadly  are  by  far  the  most 
brilliant  and  lasting  product  of  the  dispute  ;  they 
constitute  also,  says  Canon  Gore,  an  ad  hominem 
argument  of  a  Socratic  kind  which  deserves  study 
for  its  own  sake.  The  cross-examination  of  the 
Bishop,  he  continues,  'is  beyond  question,  a 
brilliant  specimen  of  vigorous  and  racy  rhetoric, 
put  at  the  disposal  of  a  clear-headed  logic  and  a 
keen  sense  of  the  bearing  of  principles  in  all  direc- 
tions— it  is  such  a  specimen  of  rhetoric  put  at  the 
service  of  close  thought  and  intense  feeling  as  a 
man  may  enjoy  simply  as  an  example  of  legitimate 
controversy,  simply  as  an  example  of  the  play  of 

323 


324  WILLIAM  LAW 

mind,  of  the  sort  of  intellectual  cross-examination 
of  which  popular  teachers  of  all  sorts  stand  in  such 
constant  need.'  Redoubtable  controversialist  as 
Hoadly  was,  he  never  ventured  to  reply  to  Law, 
and  we  find  Sherlock  ironically  congratulating  the 
Bishop  that  he  has  had  '  discretion  enough  to  let 
some  things  go  unanswered,  and  particularly  Mr 
Law's  two  letters,  a  writer  so  considerable  that 
I  know  but  one  good  reason  why  he  does  not 
answer  him.'  Hoadly  made  himself  very  accept- 
able to  the  Court  by  his  opinions,  and  did  much 
political  writing  for  his  Whig  patrons  ;  he  was  re- 
warded by  four  bishoprics  in  succession — Bangor, 
Hereford,  Salisbury,  and  Winchester.  Bangor, 
which  gives  its  name  to  the  controversy,  he  never 
once  visited,  but  retained  during  his  episcopate  his 
two  livings  in  London. 

Law  led  a  quiet  uneventful  life,  being  a  tutor  to 
Gibbon,  grandfather  of  the  historian,  for  some  time  ; 
his  last  twenty  years  were  spent  at  Thrapston 
with  Mrs  Hutcheson  and  Miss  Gibbon,  in  devotion, 
study,  almsgiving,  and  seclusion.] 

From 

^A  SECOND  LETTER  TO  THE  BISHOP 

OF  BANGOR.' 

By  William  Law,  M.A.,  London,  1717. 

My  Lord, 

A  Just  Concern  for  Truth,  and  the  First 
Principles  of  the  Christian  Religion,  was  the 
only  Motive  that  engag'd  me  in  the  Examina- 
tion of  your  Lordship's  Doctrines  in  a  Former 
Letter    to    your    Lordship.      And    the    same 


WILLIAM  LAW 


325 


Motive,  I  hope,  will  be  thought  a  sufficient 
Apology  for  my  presuming  to  give  your 
Lordship  the  Trouble  of  a  Second  Letter. 

Amongst  the  Vain  Contemptible  Things, 
whereof  your  Lordship  would  create  an  Ab- 
horrence in  the  Layity,  are,  the  Trifles  and 
Niceties  of  Authoritative  Benedictions,  Absolu- 
tions, Excommunications.^  Again,  you  say, 
that   to  expect   the  Grace  of  God  from  any 

Hands,  but  his  own,  is  to  affront  him .^ 

And  that  all  depends  upon  God  and  ourselves  ; 
That  Human  Benedictions,  Human  Absolu- 
tions, Human  Excommunications,  have  nothing 
to  do  with  the  Favour  of  God.^ 

It  is  evident  from  these  Maxims  (for  your 
Lordship  asserts  them  as  such)  that  whatever 
Institutions  are  observed  in  any  Christian 
Society  upon  this  Supposition,  that  thereby 
Grace  is  conferr'd  thro'  Human  Hands,  or  by 
the  Ministry  of  the  Clergy,  such  Institutions 
ought  to  be  condemn'd,  and  are  condemn'd  by 
your  Lordship,  as  trifling,  useless,  and  affront- 
ing to  God. 

There  is  an  Institution,  my  Lord,  in  the  yet 
Establish'd  Church  of  England,  which  we  call 

1  Preservative,  p.  98.  2  p^  gg^  3  p   jqI. 


326  WILLIAM  LAW 

Confirmation :  It  is  founded  upon  the  express 
Words  of  Scripture,  Primitive  Observance  and 
the  Universal  Practice  of  all  succeeding  Ages 
in  the  Church.  The  Design  of  this  Institution 
is,  that  it  should  be  a  Means  of  conferring 
Grace,  by  the  Prayer  and  Imposition  of  the 
Bishops  Hands  on  those  who  have  been  already 
Baptized.  But  yet  against  all  this  Authority, 
both  Divine  and  Human,  and  the  express 
Order  of  our  own  Church,  your  Lordship 
teaches  the  Layity,  that  all  Human  Bene- 
dictions are  useless  niceties;  and  that  to  expect 
God's  Grace  from  any  Hands  but  his  own^  is 
to  affront  him. 

If  so,  my  Lord,  what  shall  we  say  in  Defence 
of  the  Apostles  ?  We  read  (Acts  viii.  14)  that 
when  Philip  the  Deacon  had  baptiz'd  the 
Samaritans,  the  Apostles  sent  Peter  and  Joh7i 
to  them,  who  having  pray'd,  and  laid  their 
Hands  on  them,  they  receivd  the  Holy  Ghost, 
who  before  was  fallen  upon  none  of  them  ;  only 
they  were  baptized  in  the  Name  of  the  Lord 
Jesus. 

My  Lord,  several  things  are  here  out  of 
Question ;  First,  That  something  else,  even  in 
the  Apostolical  Times,  was  necessary,  besides 
Baptism,  in  order  to  qualilie  Persons  to  become 


WILLIAM  LAW  327 

compleat  Members  of  the  Body,  or  Partakers 
of  the  Grace  of  Christ.  They  had  been  bap- 
tiz'd,  yet  did  not  receive  the  Holy  Ghost,  till  the 
Apostles  Hands  were  laid  upon  them.  2ndly, 
That  God's  Graces  are  not  only  conferr'd  by 
means  of  Human  Hands;  but  of  some  particular 
Hands,  and  not  others.  Sdli/f  That  this  Office 
was  so  strictly  appropriated  to  the  Apostles,  or 
Chief  Governours  of  the  Church,  that  it  could 
not  be  perform'd  by  Inspir'd  Men,  tho'  empower'd 
to  work  Miracles,  who  were  of  an  inferiour 
Order ;  as  Philip  the  Deacon.  4thly,  That  the 
Power  of  the  Apostles  for  the  Performance 
of  this  Ordinance,  was  intirely  owing  to  their 
superiour  Degree  in  the  Ministry ;  and  not  to 
any  extraordinary  Gifts  they  were  endow'd 
with :  For  then  Philip  might  have  perform'd 
it ;  who  was  not  wanting  in  those  Gifts,  being 
himself  an  Evangelist,  and  Worker  of  Miracles  : 
Which  is  a  Demonstration,  that  his  In- 
capacity arose  from  his  inferiour  Degree  in  the 
Ministry. 

And  now,  my  Lord,  are  all  Human  Bene- 
dictions Niceties  and  Trifles  ?  Are  the  means 
of  God's  Grace  in  his  own  Hands  alone?  Is 
it  wicked,  and  affronting  to  God,  to  suppose 
the   contrary?     How  then  comes   Peter  and 


328  WILLIAM  LAW 

John  to  confer  the  Holy  Ghost  by  the  Imposi- 
tion of  their  Hands  ?  How  comes  it,  that  they 
appropriate  this  office  to  themselves?  Is  the 
Dispensation  of  God's  Grace  in  his  own  Hands 
alone  ?  And  yet  can  it  be  dispens'd  to  us  by 
the  Ministry  of  some  Persons,  and  not  by  that 
of  others  ? 

Were  the  Apostles  so  wicked,  as  to  dis- 
tinguish themselves  by  a  Pretence  to  vain 
Powers,  which  God  had  reserv'd  to  himself? 
And  which  your  Lordship  supposes  from  the 
Title  of  your  Preservative,  that  it  is  incon- 
sistent vdth  Common  Sense,  to  imagine  that 
God  would,  or  could  have  communicated  to 
Men. 

Had  any  of  your  Lordship's  well-instructed 
Layity  liv'd  in  the  Apostles  Days,  vnth  what 
Indignation  must  they  have  rejected  this  sens- 
less  Chimerical  Clai7n  of  the  Apostles  ?  They 
must  have  said,  Why  do  you,  Peter  or  John, 
pretend  to  this  Blasphemous  Power?  Wliilst 
we  believe  the  Gospel,  we  cannot  expect  the 
Grace  of  God  from  any  Hands  but  his  own. 
You  give  us  the  Holy  Ghost  ?  You  confer 
the  Grace  of  God !  Is  it  not  impious  to  think, 
that  He  should  make  our  Improvement  in  Grace 


WILLIAM  LAW  329 

depend  upon  your  Ministry ;  or  hang  our  Sal- 
vation upon  any  particular  Order  of  Clergy- 
men ?  We  know,  that  God  is  Just,  and  Good, 
and  True,  and  that  all  depends  upon  Him  and 
ourselves;  and  that  Human  Benedictions  are 
trifles.  Therefore  whether  you  Peter,  or  you 
Philip,  or  both,  or  neither  of  you  lay  your 
Hands  upon  us,  we  are  neither  better  nor 
worse;  but  just  in  the  same  State  of  Grace 
as  we  were  before. 

This  Representation,  has  not  one  Syllable 
in  it,  but  what  is  founded  in  your  Lordship's 
Doctrine,  and  perfectly  agreeable  to  it. 

The  late  most  Pious  and  Learned  Bishop 
Beveridge  has  these  remarkable  Words  upon 
Confirmation :  '  How  any  Bishops  in  our  Age 
dare  neglect  so  considerable  a  Part  of  their 
Office,  I  know  not ;  but  fear,  they  will  have  no 
good  Account  to  give  of  it,  when  they  come  to 
stand  before  God's  Tribunal,'  ^ 

But  we  may  justly,  and  therefore  I  hope, 
with  Decency,  ask  your  Lordship,  how  you  dare 
perform   this   Part   of  your  Office?     For  you 

1  First  Volume  of  Sermons  '  On  the  True  Nature  of  the 
Christian  Church.'    Serm.  I. 


330  WILLIAM  LAW 

have  condemn'd  it  as  Trifling  and  Wicked ;  as 
Trifling,  because  it  is  an  Human  Benediction  ; 
as  Wickedj  because  it  supposes  Grace  conferr'd 
by  the  Hands  of  tJie  Bishop,  If  therefore  any 
baptiz'd  Persons  should  come  to  your  Lordship 
for  Confirmation,  if  you  are  sincere  in  what  you 
have  deliver'd,  your  Lordship  ought,  I  humbly 
conceive,  to  make  them  this  Declaration  : 

*  My  Friends,  for  the  sake  of  Decency  and 
Order,  I  have  taken  upon  me  the  Episcopal 
Character;  and,  according  to  Custom,  which 
has  long  prevail'd  against  Common  Sence,  am 
now  to  lay  my  Hands  upon  you  :  But,  I  beseech 
you,  as  you  have  any  Regard  to  the  Truth  of 
the  Gospel,  or  to  the  Honour  of  God,  not  to 
imagine,  there  is  any  thing  in  this  Action,  more 
than  an  useless  empty  Ceremony :  For  if  you 
expect  to  have  any  Spiritual  Advantage  from 
Human  Benedictions,  or  to  receive  Grace  from 
the  Imposition  of  a  Bishop's  Hands,  you  affront 
God,  and  in  effect,  renounce  Christianity.' 

Pray,  my  Lord,  consider  that  Passage  in 
the  Scripture,  where  the  Apostle  speaks  of 
Leading  the  Principles  of  the  Doctrine  of 
Christ,  and  going  on  unto  Perfection  ;  not  lay- 
ing again  the  Foundation  of  Repentance  from 


WILLIAM  LAW  331 

dead  Works,  of  Faith  towards  God,  of  the 
Doctrine  of  Baptisms,  and  of  Laying  on  of 
Hands,  and  of  the  Resurrection  of  the  Dead, 
and  of  eternal  Judgment,  (Heb.  vi.  12). 

My  Lord,  here  it  is  undeniably  plain ;  that 
this  Laying  on  of  Hands  (which  is  with  us 
called  Confirmation)  is  so  fundamental  a  Part 
of  Christ's  Religion,  that  it  is  called  one  of  the 
First  Principles  of  the  Doctrine  of  Christ ;  and 
is  placed  amongst  us  such  primary  Truths,  as 
the  BesuiTection  of  the  Dead,  and  of  Eternal 
Judgment. 

St  Cyprian  speaking  of  this  Apostolical 
Imposition  of  Hands,  says.  The  same  is  now 
pt^actis'd  with  us ;  they  who  have  been  baptiz'd 
in  the  Church,  are  brought  to  the  Presidents  of 
the  Church,  that  by  our  Prayer  and  Imposition 
of  Hands,  they  muy  receive  the  Holy  Ghost,  and 
be  consummated  with  the  Lord's  Seal, 

And  must  we  yet  beheve,  that  all  Human 
Benedictions  are  Dreams,  and  the  Imposition 
of  Human  Hands  trifling  and  useless ;  and  that 
to  expect  God's  Graces  from  them,  is  to  affront 
him  ?  Tho'  the  Scriptures  expressly  teach  us, 
that  God  confers  his  Grace  by  means  of  certain 


332  WILLIAM  LAW 

particular  Human  Hands,  and  not  of  others ; 
tho'  they  tell  us,  this  Human  Benediction,  this 
Laying  on  of  Hands,  is  one  of  the  first  Prin- 
ciples of  the  Religion  of  Christ,  and  as  much  a 
Foundation  Doctrine  as  the  Resurrection  of  the 
Dead,  and  Eternal  Judgment ;  and  tho'  every 
Age  since  that  of  the  Apostles,  has  strictly 
observ'd  it  as  such,  and  the  Authority  of  our 
own  Church  still  requires  the  Observance  of  it  ? 

I  come  now,  my  Lord,  to  another  Sacred  and 
Divine  Institution  of  Christ's  Church,  which 
stands  expos'd  and  condemn'd  by  your  Lord- 
ship's Doctrine ;  and  that  is,  the  Ordination  of 
the  Christian  Clergy ;  where,  by  means  of  an 
Human  Benediction,  and  the  Imposition  of  the 
Bishop's  Hands,  the  Holy  Ghost  is  supposed  to 
be  conferr'd  on  Persons  towards  consecrating 
them  for  the  Work  of  the  Ministry. 

We  find  it  constantly  taught  by  the  Scrip- 
tures, that  all  Ecclesiastical  Authority,  and  the 
Graces  whereby  the  Clergy  are  qualified  and 
enabl'd  to  exercise  their  Functions  to  the 
Benefit  of  the  Church,  are  the  Gifts  and  Graces 
of  the  Holy  Spirit.  Thus  the  Apostle  exhorts 
the  Elders  to  take  heed  unto  the  Flock,  over 
which  the  Holy  Ghost  hath  made  them  Over- 


WILLIAM  LAW  333 

seersj  (Eph.  iv.  7).  But  how,  my  Lord,  had  the 
Holy  Ghost  made  them  Overseers,  but  by  the 
Laying  on  of  the  Apostles  Hands  ?  They  were 
not  immediately  call'd  by  the  Holy  Ghost ;  but 
being  consecrated  by  such  Human  Hands  as 
had  been  authorized  to  that  purpose,  they  were 
as  truly  call'd  by  him,  and  sanctified  with  Grace 
for  that  Employment,  as  if  they  had  receiv'd 
an  immediate  or  miraculous  Commission.  So 
again,  St  Paul  puts  Timothy  in  mind,  to  stir 
up  the  Gift  of  God  that  was  in  him,  by  laying 
on  of  his  Hands,  (2  Tim.  ii.  6). 

And  now,  my  Lord,  if  Human  Benedictions 
be  such  idle  Dreams  and  Trifles;  if  it  be 
affronting  to  God,  to  expect  his  Graces  from 
them,  or  through  Human  Hands;  do  we  not 
plainly  want  new  Scriptures  ?  Must  we  not 
give  up  the  Apostles  as  Furious  High-Church 
Prelates,  who  aspir'd  to  presumptuous  Claims, 
and  talk'd  of  conferring  the  Graces  of  God 
by  their  own  Hands  ?  Was  not  this  Doctrine 
as  strange  and  unaccountable  then,  as  at  pre- 
sent? Was  it  not  as  inconsistent  with  the 
Attributes  and  Sovereignty  of  God  at  that 
time,  to  have  his  Graces  pass  through  other 
Hands  than  his  own,  as  in  any  succeeding 
Age  ?     Nay,   my  Lord,   where   shall   we   find 


334  WILLIAM  LAW 

any  Fathers  or  Councils,  in  the  Primitive 
Church,  but  who  own'd  and  asserted  these 
Powers?  They  that  were  so  ready  to  part 
with  their  Lives,  rather  than  do  the  least 
Dishonour  to  God,  or  the  Christian  Name, 
yet  were  all  guilty  of  this  horrid  Blasphemy, 
in  imagining  that  they  were  to  bless  in  God's 
Name ;  and  that  by  the  Benediction  and 
Laying  on  of  the  Bishops  Hands,  the  Graces 
of  the  Holy  Ghost  could  be  conferr'd  on  any 
Persons. 

Agreeable  to  the  Sence  of  Scripture  and 
Antiquity,  our  Church  uses  this  Form  of 
Ordination :  The  Bishop  laying  his  Hands 
on  the  Persons  Head,  saith,  Receive  the 
Holy  Ghost,  for  the  Office  and  Work  of  a 
Priest  in  the  Church  of  God,  committed  unto 
thee,  by  the  Imposition  of  our  Hands,  From 
this  Form,  it  is  plain,  First,  that  our  Church 
holds,  that  the  Reception  of  the  Holy  Ghost 
is  necessary  to  constitute  a  Person  a  Christian 
Priest.  2dly,  That  the  Holy  Ghost  is  con- 
fer'd  through  Human  Hands.  Mly,  That  it 
is  by  the  Hands  of  a  Bishop  that  the  Holy 
Ghost  is  confer'd. 

If  therefore  your  Lordship  is  right  in  your 


WILLIAM  LAW  335 

Doctrine,  the  Church  of  England  is  evidently 
most  corrupt.  For  if  it  be  dishonourable  and 
affronting  to  God,  to  expect  his  Grace  from 
any  Human  Hands ;  it  must  of  necessity  be 
dishonourable  and  affronting  to  him,  for  a 
Bishop  to  pretend  to  confer  it  by  his  Hands. 
And  can  that  Church  be  any  ways  defended, 
that  has  established  such  an  Iniquity  by  Law, 
and  made  the  Form  of  it  so  necessary?  How 
can  your  Lordship  answer  it  to  your  Layity, 
for  taking  the  Character  or  Power  of  a  Bishop 
from  such  a  Form  of  Words  ?  You  tell  them, 
it  is  affronting  to  God,  to  expect  his  Grace  from 
Human  Hands;  yet  to  qualifie  your  self  for 
a  Bishoprick,  you  let  Human  Hands  be  laid 
on  you,  after  a  manner  which  directly  supposes 
you  thereby  receive  the  Holy  Ghost!  It  is 
wicked  in  them  to  expect  it  from  Human 
Hands?  And  is  it  less  so  in  your  Lordship, 
to  pretend  to  receive  it  from  Human  Hands? 
He  that  believes,  it  is  affronting  to  God,  to 
expect  his  Grace  from  Human  Hands,  must 
likewise  believe,  that  our  Form  of  Ordination, 
which  promises  the  Holy  Ghost  by  the  Bishop's 
Hands,  must  be  also  affi-onting  to  God.  Cer- 
tainly, he  cannot  be  said  to  be  very  jealous  of 
the  Honour  of  God,  who  will  submit  himself 
to   be  made  a  Bishop  by  a  Form  of  Words 


336  WILLIAM  LAW 

derogatory,  upon  his  own  Principles,  to  God's 
Honour. 


Suppose  your  Lordship  was  to  have  been 
consecrated  to  the  Office  of  a  Bishop  by  these 
Words;  Take  thou  Power  to  sustain  all 
things  in  Being  given  thee  by  my  Hands, 
I  suppose,  your  Lordship  would  think  it  in- 
tirely  Unlawful  to  submit  to  the  Form  of 
such  an  Ordination.  But,  7ny  Lord,  receive 
thou  the  Holy  Ghost,  &c.,  is  as  impious  a 
Fonn,  according  to  your  Lordship's  Doctrine, 
and  equally  injurious  to  the  Eternal  Power 
and  Godhead,  as  the  other.  For  if  the  Grace 
of  God  can  only  be  had  from  his  own  Hands, 
would  it  not  be  as  innocent  in  the  Bishop 
to  say,  Receive  thou  Power  to  sustain  all 
things  in  Being,  as  to  say,  Receive  the  Holy 
Ghost,  by  the  Imposition  of  my  Hands? 
And  would  not  a  Compliance  with  either 
Form  be  equally  unlav\^ul  ?  According  to 
your  Doctrine,  in  each  of  them  God's  Prero- 
gative is  equally  invaded;  and  therefore  the 
Guilt  must  be  the  same. 

It  may  also  well  be  wonder'd,  how  your 
Lordship  can  accept  of  a  Character,  which  is, 
or   ought  to   be   chiefly   distinguish'd   by  the 


WILLIAM  LAW  337 

Exercise  of  that  Power  which  you  disclaim, 
as  in  the  Offices  of  Confirmation  and  Or- 
dination, For,  my  Lord,  where  can  be  the 
Sincerity  of  saying.  Receive  the  Holy  Ghost 
by  the  Imposition  of  our  Haiuls,  when  you 
declare  it  affronting  to  God,  to  expect  it  from 
any  Hands  but  his  own?  Suppose  your 
Lordship  had  been  preaching  to  the  Layity 
against  owning  any  Authority  in  the  Virgin 
Mary ;  and  yet  should  acquiesce  in  the  Con- 
ditions of  being  made  a  Bishop  in  her  Name, 
and  by  recognizing  her  Power:  Could  such 
a  Submission  be  consistent  with  Sincerity? 
Here  you  forbid  the  Layity  to  expect  God's 
Grace  from  any  Hands  but  his;  yet  not  only 
accept  of  an  Office,  upon  Supposition  of  the 
contrary  Doctrine  ;  but  oblige  your  self,  accord- 
ing to  the  Sence  of  the  Church  wherein  you 
are  ordain'd  a  Bishop,  to  act  frequently  in 
direct  Opposition  to  your  own  Principles. 

So  that,  I  think,  it  is  undeniably  plain,  that 
you  have  at  once,  my  Lord,  by  these  Doctrines 
condemn'd  the  Scriptures,  the  Apostles,  their 
martyr'd  Successors,  the  Church  of  England 
and  yom*  own  Conduct ;  and  have  herby  given 
us  some  reason  (tho'  I  wish,  there  were  no 
Occasion   to   mention  it)  to  suspect,  whether 


338  WILLIAM  LAW 

you,  who  allow  of  no  other  Church,  but  what 
is  founded  in  Sincerity,  are  your  self,  really 
a  Member  of  any  Church. 

I  shall  now  proceed  to  say  something  upon 
the  Consecration  of  the  Lord's  Supper ;  which 
is  as  much  expos'd  as  a  Triflej  by  your  Lord- 
ship's Doctrine,  as  the  other  Institutions.  St 
Paul  says.  The  Cup  of  Blessing  which  we 
blesSy  is  it  not  the  Communion  of  the  Blood  of 
Christ  ?  My  Lord,  is  not  this  Cup  still  to  be 
bless'd?  Must  there  not  therefore  be  such  a 
thing  as  an  Human  Benediction?  And  are 
Human  Benedictions  to  be  all  despis'd,  though 
by  them  the  Bread  and  Wine  become  Means 
of  Grace,  and  are  made  the  Spiritual  Nourish- 
ment of  our  Souls  ?  Can  any  one  bless  this 
Cup?  If  not,  then  there  is  a  Difference 
between  Human  Benedictions :  Some  are 
authorized  by  God,  and  their  Blessing  is 
effectual ;  whilst  othei-s,  only  are  vain  and  pre- 
sumptuous. If  the  Prayer  over  the  Elements, 
and  the  Consecration,  be  only  a  Trifle  and  a 
Dream ;  and  it  be  offensive  to  God,  to  expect 
they  are  converted  into  Means  of  Grace  by  an 
Human  Benediction ;  why  then  did  St  Paul 
pretend  to  bless  them  ?  Why  did  he  make  it 
the  Privilege  of  the  Church  ?     Or,  why  do  we 


WILLIAM  LAW  339 

keep  up  the  same  Solemnity?  But  if  it  be 
to  be  bless'd  only  by  God's  Ministers,  then 
how  can  your  Lordship  answer  it  to  God,  for 
ridiculing  and  abusing  Human  Benedictions ; 
and  telling  the  World,  that  a  particular  Order 
of  the  Clergy  are  not  of  any  necessity,  nor  can 
be  of  any  Advantage  to  them.  For  if  the 
Sacrament  can  only  be  bless'd  by  God's 
Ministers;  then  such  Ministers  are  as  necessary, 
as  the  Sacraments  themselves. 

St  Paul  says,  the  Cup  must  be  bless'd:  If 
you  say,  any  one  may  bless  it,  then,  though 
you  contemn  the  Benedictions  of  the  Clergy, 
you  allow  of  them  by  every  body  else:  If 
every  body  cannot  bless  it;  then,  you  nmst 
confess,  that  the  Benedictions  of  some  Persons 
are  effectual,  where  others  are  not. 

My  Lord,  the  great  Sin  against  the  Holy 
Ghost,  was  the  Denial  of  his  Operation  in 
the  Ministry  of  our  Sa\dour.  And  how  near 
does  your  Lordship  come  to  it,  in  denying  the 
Operation  of  that  same  Spirit,  in  the  Mmisters 
whom  Christ  hath  sent?  They  are  employed 
in  the  same  Work  that  he  was.  He  left  his 
Authority  with  them;  and  promis'd,  that 
the    Holy    Spirit   should    remain   with    them 


340  WILLIAM  LAW 

to  the  End  of  the  World;  that  whatsoever 
they  should  bind  on  Earth,  should  be  bound 
in  Heaven ;  and  whatsoever  they  should 
loose  on  Earth,  should  be  loosed  in  Heaven; 
that  whatsoever  despises  them,  despises  Him, 
and  Him  that  sent  him.  And  yet  your 
Lordship  tells  us,  we  need  not  to  trouble  our 
Heads  about  any  particular  Sort  of  Clergy; 
that  all  is  to  be  transacted  betwixt  God  and 
our  selves;  that  Human  Benedictions  are  in- 
significant Trifles. 

But  pray,  what  Proof  has  your  Lordship  for 
all  this  ?  Have  you  any  Scripture  for  it  ?  Has 
God  any  where  declar'd,  that  no  Men  on  Earth 
have  any  Authority  to  bless  in  his  Name  ? 
Has  he  any  where  said,  that  it  is  a  mcked, 
presumptuous  Thing  for  any  one  to  pretend  to 
it?  Has  he  any  where  told  us,  that  it  is 
inconsistent  with  his  Honour,  to  bestow  his 
Graces  by  Human  Hands  ?  Has  he  any  where 
told  us,  that  he  has  no  jMinisters,  no  Em- 
bassadors on  Earth ;  but  that  all  his  Gifts 
and  Graces  are  to  be  receiv'd  immediately  from 
his  own  Hands  ?  Have  you  any  Antiquity, 
Fathers  or  Councils  on  your  side  ?  No :  The 
whole  Tenour  of  Scripture,  the  whole  Current 
of    Tradition    is    against  you.      Your    Novel 


WILLIAM  LAW  341 

Doctrine  has  only  this,  to  recommend  it  to 
the  Libertines  of  the  Age,  who  universally  give 
unto  it,  that  it  never  was  the  Opinion  of  any 
Church,  or  Church-man.  It  is  your  Lordship's 
proper  Assertion,  That  we  offend  God  in  expect- 
ing his  Graces  from  any  Hands  but  his  own. 

Now  it's  strange,  that  God  should  be  offended 
with  his  own  Methods ;  or  that  your  Lordship 
should  find  us  out  a  Way  of  pleasing  him, 
more  suitable  to  his  Nature  and  Attributes, 
than  what  he  has  taught  us  in  the  Scriptures. 
I  call  them  his  own  Methods :  For  what  else 
is  the  whole  Jewish  Dispensation,  but  a 
Method  of  God's  Providence ;  where  his 
Blessings  and  Judgments  were  dispens'd  by 
Human  Hands  ?  What  is  the  Christian  Re- 
hgion  but  a  Method  of  Salvation,  where  the 
chief  Means  of  Grace  are  ofFer'd  and  dispens'd 

by  Human  Hands  ? 

***** 

From  the  Places  of  Scripture  above  men- 
tioned, it  is  evident;  and  indeed,  from  the 
whole  Tenour  of  Sacred  Writ,  that  it  may 
consist  with  the  Goodness  and  Justice  of  God, 
to  depute  Men  to  act  in  his  Name,  and  be 
ministerial  towards  the  Salvation  of  others; 
and  to  lay  a  Necessity  upon  his  Creatures  of 


342  WILLIAM  LAW 

qualifying  themselves  for  Iiis  Favour,  and  re- 
ceiving his  Graces  by  the  Hands  and  Interven- 
tion of  mere  Men. 

But,  my  Lord,  if  there  be  now  any  Set  of 
Men  upon  Earth,  that  are  more  peculiarly 
God's  Ministers,  than  Others ;  and  thro'  whose 
Administrations,  Prayers,  and  Benedictions, 
God  will  accept  of  returning  Sinners,  and 
receive  them  to  Grace ;  you  have  done  all  you 
can,  to  prejudice  People  against  them  :  Yoii 
have  taught  the  Layity,  that  all  is  to  be 
transacted  between  God  and  themselves ;  and 
that  they  need  not  value  any  particular  sort  of 
Clergy  in  the  World. 

I  leave  it  to  the  Great  Judge  and  Searcher 
of  Hearts,  to  judge,  from  what  Principles,  or 
upon  what  Motives,  your  Lordship  has  been 
induc'd  to  teach  these  things :  But  must  de- 
clare, that  for  my  own  part,  if  I  had  the 
gi'eatest  Hatred  to  Christianity,  I  should  think, 
it  could  not  be  more  express'd,  than  by  teacliing 
what  your  Lordship  has  publickly  taught.  If 
I  could  rejoice  in  the  Misery  and  Ruin  of 
Sinners,  I  should  think  it  sufficient  INIatter  of 
Triumph,  to  drive  them  from  the  Ministei's  of 
God,  and   to  put  them  upon   inventing  new 


WILLIAM  LAW  343 

Scliemes  of  saving  themselves,  instead  of  sub- 
mitting to  the  ordinary  Methods  of  Salvation 
appointed  by  God. 

It  will  not  follow  from  any  thing  I  have 
said,  that  the  Layity  have  lost  their  Christian 
Liberty;  or  that  no  body  can  be  sav'd,  but 
whom  the  Clergy  please  to  save;  that  they 
have  the  arbitrary  Disposal  of  Happiness  to 
Mankind.  Was  Abimeleck's  Happiness  in  the 
Disposition  of  Abraham^  because  he  was  to  be 
receiv'd  by  means  of  Abraham's  Intercession  ? 
Or  could  Job  damn  Eliphaz,  because  he  was  to 
mediate  for  him,  and  procure  his  Reconciliation 
to  God? 

Neither,  my  Lord,  do  the  Christian  Clergy 
pretend  to  this  despotick  Empire  over  their 
Flocks :  They  don't  assume  to  themselves  a 
Power  to  damn  the  Innocent,  or  to  save  the 
Guilty :  But  they  assert  a  sober  and  just  Right 
to  reconcile  Men  to  God;  and  to  act  in  his 
Name,  in  restoring  them  to  his  Favour.  They 
receiv'd  their  Commission  from  those  whom 
Christ  sent  with  full  Authority  to  send  others, 
and  with  a  Promise  that  he  would  be  with 
them  to  the  End  of  the  World.  From  this,  they 
conclude,  that  they  have  his  Authority;   and 


344  WILLIAM  LAW 

that  in  consequence  of  it,  their  Administrations 
are  necessary,  and  effectual  to  the  Salvation  of 
Mankind ;  and  that  none  can  despise  Them,  but 
who  despise  Him  that  sent  them ;  and  are  as 
surely  out  of  the  Covenant  of  Grace,  when  they 
leave  such  his  Pastors,  as  when  they  openly 
despise,  or  omit  to  receive  his  Sacraments. 

And  what  is  there  in  this  Doctrine,  my  Lord, 
to  terrific  the  Consciences  of  the  Layity  ?  What 
is  there  here,  to  bring  the  prophane  Scandal  of 
Priestcraft  upon  the  Clergy  ?  Could  it  be  any 
gi'ound  of  Abimeleck's  hating  Abraham,  because 
that  Abraham  was  to  reconcile  him  to  God  ? 
Could  Eliphaz  justly  have  any  Prejudice 
against  Job,  because  God  would  hear  Job's 
Intercession  for  him?  Why  then,  my  Lord, 
must  the  Christian  Priesthood  be  so  horrid  and 
hateful  an  Institution,  because  the  Design  of  it 
is  to  restore  Men  to  the  Grace  and  Favour  of 
God  ?  Why  must  we  be  so  abus'd  and  insulted, 
for  being  sent  upon  the  Errand  of  Salvation, 
and  made  Ministers  of  eternal  Happiness  to  our 
Brethren  ?  There  is  a  Woe  due  to  us  if  we 
preach  not  the  Gospel ;  or  neglect  those 
ministerial  Offices  that  Christ  has  entrusted  to 
us.  We  are  to  watch  for  their  Souls,  as  those 
who  arc  to  give  an  Account.     Why  then  must 


WILLIAM  LAW  345 

we  be  treated  as  arrogant  Priests,  or  Popishly 
aiFected,  for  pretending  to  have  any  thing  to  do, 
in  the  Discharge  of  our  Ministry,  with  the  Sal- 
vation of  Men  ?  Why  must  we  be  reproach'd 
with  Blasphemous  Claims^  and  Absurd  Sense- 
less Powers,  for  assuming  to  bless  in  God's 
Name;  or  thinking  our  Administrations  more 
effectual,  than  the  Office  of  a  common  Layman  ? 

But  further,  to  what  purpose  does  your 
Lordship  except  against  these  Powers  in  the 
Clergy,  from  their  common  Frailties  and  In- 
firmities with  the  rest  of  Mankind  ?  Was  not 
Abraham,  and  Job,  and  the  Jeivish  Priests, 
Men  of  like  Passions  with  us  ?  Did  not  our 
Saviour  command  the  Jeivs  to  apply  to  their 
Priests,  notwithstanding  their  Personal  Faults, 
because  they  sat  m  Moses's  Chair  ?  Did  not 
the  Apostles  assure  their  Followers,  that  They 
were  Men  of  like  Passions  with  them?  But 
did  they  therefore  disclaim  their  Mission,  or 
Apostolical  Authority  ?  Did  they  teach  that 
their  National  Infirmities  made  them  less  the 
Ministers  of  God,  or  less  necessary  to  the 
Salvation  of  Men  ?  Theii*  Personal  Defects 
did  not  make  them  depart  from  the  Claim  of 
those  Powers  they  were  invested  with;  or 
desert  their  Ministry :  But  indeed,  gave  St 
y 


34^  WILLIAM  LAW 

Paul  Occasion  to  say,  We  have  this  Treasure  in 
Earthen  Vessels  {i.e.  this  Authority  committed 
to  mere  men)  that  the  Excellency  of  it  may  he 
of  God,  and  not  of  Men.  The  Apostle  happens  to 
differ  very  much  from  your  Lordship  :  He  says, 
such  weak  Instruments  were  made  use  of,  that 
the  Glory  might  redound  to  God :  Your  Lord- 
ship says,  to  suppose  such  Instruments  to  be 
of  any  Benefit  to  us,  is  to  lessen  the  Sovereignty 
of  God,  and  in  Consequence,  his  Glory. 

Your  Lordship  imagines,  you  have  suffi- 
ciently destroy'd  the  Sacerdotal  Powers,  by 
shewing,  that  the  Clergy  are  only  Men,  and 
subject  to  the  common  Frailties  of  Mankind. 
My  Lord,  we  own  the  Charge ;  and  don't  claim 
any  Sacerdotal  Powers  from  our  Personal 
Abilities,  or  to  acquire  any  Glory  to  our  selves. 
But,  weak  as  we  are,  we  are  God's  Ministers ; 
and  if  we  are  either  afraid  or  asham'd  of  our 
Duty,  we  must  perish  in  the  Guilt.  But  is  a 
Prophet  therefore  proud,  because  he  insists 
upon  the  Authority  of  his  mission?  Cannot 
a  Mortal  be  God's  INIessenger,  and  employ 'd 
in  his  Affairs ;  but  he  must  be  insolent  and 
assuming,  for  having  the  Resolution  to  own 
it?  If  we  are  to  be  reprov'd,  for  pretending 
to  be  God's    Ministers,   because  we  are  but 


WILLIAM  LAW  347 

Men,  the  Reproach  will  fall  upon  Providence ; 
since  it  has  pleas'd  God  chiefly  to  transact 
his  Affairs  with  Mankind  by  the  Ministry  of 
their  Brethren. 

Your  Lordship  has  not  one  Word  from 
Scripture  against  these  Sacerdotal  Powers; 
no  Proof,  that  Christ  has  not  sent  Men  to  be 
Effectual  Administrators  of  his  Graces  :  You 
only  assert,  that  there  can  be  no  such  Ministers, 
because  they  are  mere  Men. 

Now,  my  Lord,  I  must  beg  leave  to  say,  that 
if  the  Natural  Weakness  of  Men  makes  them 
incapable  of  being  the  Instruments  of  convey- 
ing Grace  to  their  Brethren;  if  the  Clergy 
cannot  be  of  any  Use  or  Necessity  to  their 
Flocks,  for  this  Reason;  Then  it  undeniably 
follows,  that  there  can  be  no  positive  Institu- 
tions in  the  Christian  Religion,  that  can  procure 
any  Spiritual  Advantages  to  the  Members  of 
it ;  then  the  Sacraments  can  be  no  longer  any 
Means  of  Grace.  For,  I  hope,  no  one  thinks, 
that  Bread  and  Wine  have  any  Natural  Force 
or  Efficacy,  to  convey  Grace  to  the  Soul.  Tlie 
Water  in  Baptism  has  the  common  Qualities 
of  Water,  and  is  Destitute  of  any  intrinsick 
Power   to   cleanse   the   Soul,   or  purifie   from 


348  WILLIAM  LAW 

Sin.  But  your  Lordship  will  not  say,  be- 
cause it  has  only  the  common  Nature  of 
Water,  that  therefore  it  cannot  be  a  Means  of 
Grace.  Wliy  then  may  not  the  Clergy  tho'  they 
have  the  common  Nature  of  Men,  be  constituted 
by  God,  to  convey  his  Graces,  and  to  be  minis- 
terial to  the  Salvation  of  their  Brethren? 
Can  God  consecrate  inanimate  Things  to 
Spiritual  Purposes,  and  make  them  the  Means 
of  Eternal  Happiness?  And  is  Man  the  only 
Creature  that  he  can't  make  subservient  to 
his  Designs  ?  The  only  Being,  who  is  too  Weak 
for  an  Omnipotent  God  to  render  effectual 
towards  attaining  the  Ends  of  his  Grace  ? 

Is  it  just  and  reasonable,  to  reject  and 
despise  the  Ministry  and  Benedictions  of  Men, 
because  they  are  Men  like  our  selves?  And 
is  it  not  as  reasonable,  to  despise  the  sprink- 
ling of  Water,  a  Creature  below  us,  a  sense- 
less and  inanimate  Creature. 

Your  Lordship  therefore,  must  either  find 
us  some  other  Reason  for  rejecting  the  Neces- 
sity of  Human  Administrations,  than  because 
they  are  Human;  or  else  give  up  the  Sacra- 
ments, and  all  Positive  Institutions  along  with 
them. 


WILLIAM  LAW  349 

Surely,  your  Lordship  must  have  a  mighty 
Opinion  of  Naaman  the  Syrian;  who,  when 
the  Prophet  bid  him  go  wash  in  Jordan  seven 
times,  to  the  end  he  might  be  clean  from  his 
Leprosie,  very  wisely  remonstrated,  Are  not 
Abana  and  Pharpar,  Rivers  of  Damascus,  letter 
than  all  the  Waters  of  Israel. 

This,  my  Lord,  discover'd  Naaman's  great 
Liberty  of  Mind;  and  'tis  much  this  has  not 
been  produc'd  before,  as  an  Argument  of  his 
being  a  Free-Thinker,  He  took  the  Water 
of  Jordan  to  be  only  Water ;  as  your  Lord- 
ship justly  observes  a  Clergjuian  to  be  only 
a  Man :  And  if  you  had  been  with  him,  you 
could  have  inform'd  him,  that  the  washing 
seven  times  was  a  mere  Nicety  and  Trifle  of 
the  Prophet;  and  that  since  it  is  God  alone 
who  can  work  miraculous  Cures j  we  ought 
not  to  think,  that  they  depend  upon  any  ex- 
ternal Means,  or  any  stated  Number  of  repeat- 
ing them. 

This,  my  Lord,  is  the  true  Scope  and  Spirit 
of  your  Argument:  If  the  Syrian  was  right 
in  despising  the  Water  of  Jordan,  because  it 
was  only  Water;  your  Lordship  may  be  right 
in  despising  any  particular  Order  of  Clergy; 


350  WILLIAM  LAW 

because  they  are  but  Men.      Your   Lordship 
is  certainly  as  right,  or  as  wrong,  as  he  was. 

And  now,  my  Lord,  let  the  common  Sence 
of  Mankind  here  judge,  whether,  if  the  Clergy 
are  to  be  esteem'd  as  having  no  Authority, 
because  they  are  mere  Men ;  it  does  not 
plainly  follow,  that  every  thing  else,  every 
Institution  that  has  not  some  natural  Force 
and  Power  to  produce  the  Effects  designed 
by  it,  is  not  also  to  be  rejected  as  equally 
Trifling  and  Ineffectual. 

The  Sum  of  the  matter  is  this :  It  appears 
from  many  express  Facts,  and  indeed,  from  the 
whole  Series  of  God's  Providence,  that  it  is  not 
only  consistent  with  his  Attributes ;  but  also 
agreeable  to  his  ordinary  Methods  of  dealing 
with  Mankind,  that  he  should  substitute  Men 
to  act  in  his  Name,  and  be  Authoritatively 
employ'd  in  conferring  his  Graces  and  Favours 
upon  Mankind.  It  appears,  that  your  Lord- 
ship's Argimient  against  the  authoritative  Ad- 
ministrations of  the  Christian  Clergy,  does  not 
only  contradict  those  Facts,  and  condemn 
the  ordinary  Method  of  God's  Dispensations ; 
but  hkewise  proves  the  Sacraments,  and 
every  positive   Institution   of  Christianity,   to 


WILLIAM  LAW  351 

be  ineffectual,  and  as  mere  Dreams  and 
Trifles,  as  the  several  Offices  and  Orders  of 
the  Clergy. 

This,  I  hope,  wiU  be  esteem'd  a  sufficient 
Confutation  of  your  Lordship's  Doctrine,  by 
all  who  have  any  true  Regard  or  Zeal  for 
the  Christian  Religion;  and  only  expect  to 
be  sav'd  by  the  Methods  of  Divine  Grace 
propos'd  in  the  Gospel. 


XVII 
SYDNEY  SMITH 

[Born  in  1771,  ordained  in  1794,  Sydney  Smith 
soon  went  to  Edinburgh,  where  he  started  the  great 
Review;  after  five  years  he  came  to  London  and 
drew  great  audiences  to  his  sermons  and  lectures. 
It  was  here  in  1807  that  he  wrote  the  Letters  of 
Peter  Plymley.  After  seventeen  years'  duty  in 
Yorkshire  and  Somerset  he  was  made  in  1831 
Canon  of  St.  Paul's,  though  he  continued  to  '  li^^e 
in  the  country'  part  of  the  year  till  he  died,  1845. 

Of  the  Plymley  Letters,  Lord  John  Russell,  who 
knew  Smith  intimately,  said  that  they  bore  the 
greatest  likeness  to  his  conversation  of  anything 
that  he  wrote.  '  His  powers  of  fun  were  at  the  same 
time  united  with  the  strongest  and  most  practical 
common  sense.  So  that  while  he  laughed  away 
seriousness  at  one  minute,  he  destroyed  in  the 
next  some  rooted  prejudice  which  had  braved  for 
a  thousand  years  the  battle  of  reason  and  the 
breeze  of  ridicule.  ...  It  may  be  averred  for 
certain  that  in  this  style  he  has  never  been 
equalled,  and  I  do  not  suppose  he  will  ever  be 
surpassed.'  The  cause  of  CathoHc  Emancipation 
is  well  explained  in  the  Letter  which  is  here  re- 
printed, and  further  explanation  is  given  in  the 
notes.  Here  it  may  suffice  to  say  that,  besides 
the  Test  Act  of  1673,  and  the  oppression  in- 
herited from  Queen  Elizabeth,  various  iniquitous 
statutes  against  the  Romanists  had  been  passed  by 
William  HI.,  which  were  annulled  by  the  Acts  of 

352 


SYDNEY  SMITH  353 

1778  and  1793.  In  Ireland  their  condition  was  still 
worse;  their  public  worship  was  proscribed,  and 
they  were  deprived  of  the  guardianship  of  their 
children  :  the  Act  of  1791  modified  their  hardships, 
and  Pitt  tried  in  1799,  when  the  Act  of  Union  was 
in  contemplation,  to  admit  Irish  Roman  Catholics 
to  the  United  Parliament.  George  III.  was  how- 
ever stubbornly  opposed  to  all  Catholic  Relief. 
The  Whig  ministry  of  1806  resigned  next  year 
because  the  king  demanded  a  written  promise 
that  no  further  concessions  would  be  proposed  for 
Catholics.  Thereupon  a  new  ministry  was  formed 
under  Perceval  and  the  Duke  of  Portland,  and 
Sydney  Smith  wrote  the  Letters  of  Peter  Plymley 
against  Perceval  and  his  associates.  Smith  said 
afterwards  of  these  Letters  that  'they  had  an 
immense  circulation  at  the  time,  and  I  think  above 
20,000  copies  [were  sold.'  The  Catholic  Relief  Bill 
was  finally  passed  in  1829  by  Peel  and  Wellington.] 

From 

*  LETTERS   ON  THE  SUBJECT  OF  THE 

CATHOLICS, 

To  my  Brother  Abraham  who  lives  iu  the 
Comitry.'     By  Peter  Plymley. 

Letter  V 
Dear  x4.braliam, 

I  never  met  a  parson  in  my  life  who 
did  not  consider  the  Corporation  and  Test 
Acts  as  the  great  bulwarks  of  the  Church;^ 

^  The  Corporation  Act  (1661)  forced  all  officers  of 
corporations,  and  the  Test  Act  (1673)  forced  all  hold- 
ing any  ofiice  of  profit  or  trust  under  the  Crown,  to 


354  SYDNEY  SMITH 

and  yet  it  is  now  just  64  years  since  bills  of 
indemnity  to  destroy  their  penal  effects,  or, 
in  other  words,  to  repeal  them,  have  been 
passed  annually  as  a  matter  of  course.  These 
bulwarks,  without  which  no  clergyman  thinks 
he  could  sleep  with  his  accustomed  soundness, 
have  actually  not  been  in  existence  since  any 
man  now  living  has  taken  holy  orders.  Every 
year  the  indemnity  act  pardons  past  breaches 
of  these  two  laws,  and  prevents  any  fresh 
actions  of  informers  from  coming  to  a  con- 
clusion before  the  period  for  the  next  in- 
demnity bill  arrives;  so  that  these  penalties, 
by  which  alone  the  Church  remains  in  exist- 
ence, have  not  had   one  moment's   operation 

for  64  years. You  will  say,  the  Legislature 

during  the  whole  of  this  period,  has  reserved 
to  itself  the  discretion  of  suspending,  or  not 
suspending.  But  had  not  the  Legisla- 
ture the  right  of  re-enacting,  if  it  was 
necessary?      And  now  when   you  have  kept 

receive  the  Sacrament  according  to  the  Anglican  rite, 
and  to  take  the  oaths  of  allegiance  and  supremacy. 
The  Test  Act,  being  primarily  directed  against  the 
Romanists,  added  a  declaration  against  transubstantia- 
tion.  Gradually  the  Protestant  Nonconformists  began 
to  hold  office  without  complying  with  the  Act  at  all, 
and  from  1727  acts  of  indemnity  were  passed  each  year 
to  cover  such  breaches  of  the  law.  The  Test  and  Cor- 
poration Acts  were  not  repealed  till  1828. 


SYDNEY  SMITH  355 

the  rod  over  these  people  (with  the  most 
scandalous  abuse  of  all  principle)  for  64  years, 
and  not  found  it  necessary  to  strike  once,  is 
not  that  the  best  of  all  reasons  why  the  rod 

should    be   laid    aside? You   talk   to    me 

of  a  very  valuable  hedge  running  across  your 
fields,  which  you  would  not  part  with  on  any 
account.     I  go  down,  expecting  to  find  a  limit 
impei-vious    to    cattle,    and    highly   useful    for 
the  preservation  of  property ;  but  to  my  utter 
astonishment,  I  find  that  the  hedge  was  cut 
down    half    a    century    ago,    and    that    every 
year  the  shoots  are  clipped  the  moment  they 
appear  above  ground :  it  appears,  upon  farther 
inquiry,  that  the  hedge  never  ought  to  have 
existed  at  all ;  that  it  originated  in  the  mahce 
of   antiquated    quaiTels,   and    was    cut    down 
because  it  subjected  you  to  vast  inconvenience, 
and  broke  up  your  intercourse  with  a  country 
absolutely  necessary  to  your  existence.     If  the 
remains  of  this  hedge  seive  only  to  keep  up 
an  irritation   in   your   neighbours,  and  to  re- 
mind them  of  the  feuds  of  former  times,  good 
nature    and   good   sense  teach   you  that  you 
ought  to  grub  it  up,  and  cast  it  into  the  oven. 
This  is  the  exact  state  of  these  two  laws  ;  and 
yet  it  is  made  a  great  argument  against  con- 
cession to  the  CathoHcs,  that  it  involves  their 


^S6  SYDNEY  SMITH 

repeal ;  which  is  to  say,  do  not  make  me  relin- 
quish a  folly  that  will  lead  to  my  ruin  ;  because, 
if  you  do,  I  must  give  up  other  follies  ten  times 
greater,  though  more  innocent  than  this. 

I  confess,  mth  all  om*  bulwarks  and  hedges, 
it  mortifies  me  to  the  very  quick,  to  contrast 
with  our  matchless  stupidity  and  inimitable 
folly,  the  conduct  of  Bonaparte  upon  the 
subject  of  rehgious  persecution.  At  the 
moment  when  we  are  tearing  the  crucifixes 
fi'om  the  necks  of  the  Catholics,  and  prepos- 
terously expressing  hopes  of  their  conversion ; 
at  that  moment  this  man  is  assembling  the 
very  Jews  at  Paris,  and  endeavouring  to  give 
them  stability  and  importance.  I  shall  never 
be  reconciled  to  mending  shoes  in  America ; 
but  I  see  it  must  be  my  lot,  and  I  will  then 
take  a  dreadful  revenge  upon  Mr  Perceval, 
if  I  catch  him  preaching  within  ten  miles  of 
me.  I  cannot  for  the  soul  of  me  conceive 
whence  this  man  has  gained  his  notions  of 
Christianity:  he  has  the  most  evangelical 
charity  for  errors  in  arithmetic,  and  the  most 
inveterate  malice  against  errors  in  con- 
science. While  he  rages  against  those  whom 
in  the  true  spirit  of  the  Gospel  he  ought  to 
indulge,  he  forgets  the  only  instance  of  severity 
which  that  Gospel   contains,   and  leaves   the 


SYDNEY  SMITH  357 

jobbers,  and  contractors,  and  money-changers 
at  their  seats,  without  a  single  stripe. 

You  cannot  imagine,  you  say,  that  Enghxnd 
will  ever  be  ruined  and  conquered;  and  for 
no  other  reason  that  I  can  find,  but  because 
it  seems  so  very  odd  it  should  be  ruined  and 
conquered.  Alas !  so  reasoned,  in  their  time, 
the  Austrian,  Russian,  and  Prussian  Plymleys. 

But   the    English    are    brave ;    so    were 

all  these  nations.  You  might  get  together 
an  hundred  thousand  men  individually  brave ; 
but  without  generals  capable  of  commanding 
such  a  machine,  it  would  be  as  useless  as  a 
first-rate  man  of  war  manned  by  Oxford  clergy- 
men, or  Parisian  shopkeepers.  I  do  not  say 
this  to  the  disparagement  of  EngUsh  officers : 
they  have  had  no  means  of  acquiring  ex- 
perience ;  but  I  do  say  it  to  create  alarm  ; 
for  we  do  not  appear  to  me  to  be  half  alarmed 
enough,  or  to  entertain  that  sense  of  our 
danger  which  leads  to  the  most  obvious 
means  of  self-defence.  As  for  the  spirit  of 
the  peasantry,  in  making  a  gallant  defence 
behind  hedge-rows,  and  through  plate  racks 
and  hencoops,  highly  as  I  think  of  theu^ 
bravery,  I  do  not  know  any  nation  in  Europe 
so  likely  to  be  struck  with  panic  as  the 
English ;  and  this  from  their  total  acquaintance 


358  SYDNEY  SMITH 

with  sciences  of  war.  Old  wheat  and  beans 
blazing  for  twenty  miles  round  ;  cart  mares 
shot ;  sows  of  Lord  Somerville's  breed  run- 
ning wild  over  the  country ;  the  minister  of 
the  parish  wounded  sorely  in  his  hinder  parts  ; 
Mrs  Plymley  in  fits  ;  all  these  scenes  of  war  an 
Austrian  or  a  Russian  has  seen  three  or  four 
times  over ;  but  it  is  now  three  centuries  since 
an  English  pig  has  fallen  in  a  fair  battle 
upon  English  ground,  or  a  farm  house  been 
rifled,  or  a  clergyman's  wife  been  subjected 
to  any  other  proposals  of  love,  than  the 
connubial  endearments  of  her  sleek  and 
orthodox  mate.  The  old  edition  of  Plutarch's 
Lives,  which  lies  in  the  corner  of  yom- 
parlour  window,  has  contributed  to  work 
you  up  to  the  most  romantic  expectations 
of  oiu*  Roman  behaviour.  You  are  per- 
suaded that  Lord  Amherst  will  defend 
Kew-Bridge  like  Codes ;  that  some  maid 
of  honour  will  break  away  fi'om  her  cap- 
tivity, and  swim  over  the  Thames;  that  the 
Duke  of  York^  will  burn  his  capitulating 
hand ;    and   little   Mr   Sturges   Bourne  ^  give 

^  He  was  a  singularly  incompetent  officer.  As  Com- 
mander in  Chief  he  made  a  disgraceful  convefition  with 
the  French  in  1799. 

2  A  friend  of  Canning,  and  member  of  two  administra- 
tions under  him. 


SYDNEY  SMITH  359 

foi-ty  years  purchase  for  Moulsham  -  Hall, 
while  the  French  are  encamped  upon  it. 
I  hope  we  shall  witness  all  this,  if  the 
French  do  come ;  but  in  the  mean  time,  I 
am  so  enchanted  with  the  ordinary  English 
behaviour  of  these  invaluable  persons,  that 
I  earnestly  pray  no  opportunity  may  be  given 
them  for  Roman  valour,  and  for  those  very 
un-Roman  pensions,  which  they  would  all, 
of  course,  take  especial  care  to  claim  in  con- 
sequence. But  whatever  was  our  conduct, 
if  every  ploughman  was  as  great  a  hero  as 
he  who  was  called  from  his  oxen  to  save 
Rome  from  her  enemies,  I  should  still  say, 
that  at  such  a  crisis  you  want  the  affections 
of  all  your  subjects  in  both  islands :  there 
is  no  spirit  which  you  must  alienate,  no 
heart  you  must  avert,  every  man  must  feel 
he  has  a  country,  and  that  there  is  an 
urgent  and  pressing  cause  why  he  should 
expose  himself  to  death. 

The  effects  of  penal  laws,  in  matters  of 
religion,  are  never  confined  to  those  limits  in 
which  the  legislature  intended  they  should  be 
placed :  it  is  not  only  that  I  am  excluded  from 
certain  offices  and  dignities  because  I  am  a 
Catholic,  but  the  exclusion  carries  with  it  a 
certain  stigma,  which  degrades  me  in  the  eyes 


36o  SYDNEY  SMITH 

of  the  monopolizing  sect,  and  the  very  name  of 
my  religion  becomes  odious.  These  effects  are 
so  very  striking  in  England,  that  I  solemnly 
believe  blue  and  red  baboons  to  be  more 
popular  here  than  Catholics  and  Presbyterians ; 
the}^  are  more  understood,  and  there  is  a 
greater  disposition  to  do  something  for  them. 
When  a  country  squire  hears  of  an  ape,  his 
first  feeling  is  to  give  it  nuts  and  apples ;  when 
he  hears  of  a  Dissenter,  his  immediate  impulse 
is  to  commit  it  to  the  county  jail,  to  shave  its 
head,  to  alter  its  customary  food,  and  to  have 
it  privately  whipped.  This  is  no  caricature, 
but  an  accurate  picture  of  national  feelings,  as 
they  degrade  and  endanger  us  at  this  very 
moment.  The  Irish  Catholic  gentleman 
would  bear  his  legal  disabilities  with  greater 
temper,  if  these  were  all  he  had  to  bear — if 
they  did  not  enable  every  Protestant  cheese- 
monger and  tide-waiter  to  treat  him  with  con- 
tempt. He  is  branded  on  the  forehead  with  a 
red-hot  iron,  and  treated  like  a  spiritual  felon, 
because,  in  the  highest  of  all  considerations  he 
is  led  by  the  noblest  of  all  guides,  his  own 
disinterested  conscience. 

Why  are  nonsense  and  cruelty  a  bit  the 
better  because  they  are  enacted  ?  If  Provi- 
dence, which  gives  wine  and  oil,  had  blest  us 


SYDNEY  SMITH  361 

with  that  tolerant  spirit  which  makes  the 
countenance  more  pleasant  and  the  heart  more 
glad  than  these  can  do ;  if  our  Statute  Book 
had  never  been  defiled  with  such  infamous 
laws,  the  sepulchral  Spencer  Perceval  would 
have  been  hauled  through  the  dirtiest  horse- 
pond  in  Hampstead,  had  he  ventured  to  pro- 
pose them.  But  now  persecution  is  good, 
because  it  exists;  every  law  which  originated 
in  ignorance  and  malice,  and  gratifies  the 
passions  from  whence  it  sprang,  we  call  the 
wisdom  of  our  ancestors ;  when  such  laws  are 
repealed,  they  will  be  cruelty  and  madness ;  till 
they  are  repealed,  they  are  pohcy  and  caution. 

I  was  somewhat  amused  with  the  imputation 
brought  against  the  CathoHcs  by  the  University 
of  Oxford,  that  they  are  enemies  to  liberty.  I 
immediately  turned  to  my  History  of  England, 
and  marked  as  an  historical  error  that  passage, 
in  which  it  is  recorded,  that,  in  the  reign  of 
Queen  Anne,  the  famous  decree  of  the  Uni- 
versity of  Oxford,  respecting  passive  obedience, 
was  ordered,  by  the  House  of  Lords,  to  be 
burnt  by  the  hands  of  the  common  hangman, 
as  contrary  to  the  liberty  of  the  subject,  and 
the  law  of  the  land.  Nevertheless,  I  wish, 
whatever  be  the  modesty  of  those  who  impute, 
that  the  imputation  was  a  little  more  true  than 
z 


362  SYDNEY  SMITH 

it  is  ;  the  Catholic  cause  would  not  be  quite  so 
desperate  with  the  present  Administration.  I 
fear,  however,  that  the  hatred  to  liberty  in 
these  poor  devoted  wi-etches  may  'ere  long 
appear  more  doubtful  than  it  is  at  present  to 
the  Vice-Chancellor  and  his  Clergy,  inflamed, 
as  they  doubtless  are,  with  classical  examples 
of  repubhcan  virtue,  and  panting,  as  they 
always  have  been,  to  reduce  the  power  of  the 

Crown  within  narrower  and  safer  limits. 

What  mistaken  zeal,  to  attempt  to  connect  one 
religion  with  freedom,  and  another  with  slavery. 
Who  laid  the  foundations  of  English  liberty? 
What  was  the  mixed  religion  of  Switzerland  ? 
What  has  the  Protestant  religion  done  for 
liberty  in  Denmark,  in  Sweden,  throughout  the 
North  of  Germany,  and  in  Prussia  ?  The 
purest  religion  in  the  world,  in  my  humble 
opinion,  is  the  religion  of  the  Church  of  Eng- 
land :  for  its  preservation  (so  far  as  it  is  exer- 
cised without  intruding  upon  the  liberties  of 
others),  I  am  ready  at  this  moment  to  venture 
my  present  life,  and  but  through  that  rehgion 
I  have  no  hopes  of  any  other ;  yet  I  am  not 
forced  to  be  silly  because  I  am  pious ;  nor  will 
I  ever  join  in  eulogiums  on  my  faith,  which 
every  man  of  common  reading  and  common 
sense  can  so  easily  refute. 


SYDNEY  SMITH  363 

You  have  either  done  too  much  for  the 
Cathohcs  (worthy  Abraham),  or  too  little ;  if 
you  had  intended  to  refuse  them  pohtical 
power,  you  should  have  refused  them  civil 
rights.  After  you  had  enabled  them  to  acquire 
property,  after  you  had  conceded  to  them  all 
that  you  did  concede  in  78  and  93,^  the  rest  is 
wholly  out  of  your  power :  you  may  chuse 
whether  you  will  give  the  rest  in  an  honourable 
or  a  disgraceful  mode,  but  it  is  utterly  out  of 
your  power  to  withhold  it. 

In  the  last  year,  land  to  the  amount  of  eight 
hundred  thousand  pounds  was  purchased  by 
the  Catholics  in  Ireland.  Do  you  think  it  pos- 
sible to  be-Perceval,  and  be-Canning,^  and  be- 
Castlereagh  such  a  body  of  men  as  this  out  of 
their  common  rights,  and  their  common  sense  ? 
Mr  George  Canning  may  laugh  and  joke  at  the 

1  The  Act  of  1778,  which  led  to  the  Gordon  Riots, 
passed  almost  unanimously  through  both  Houses ;  it 
allowed  R.  Catholics  to  hold  property  in  land,  and  re- 
moved the  taint  of  felony  from  their  spiritual  instructors. 
That  of  1793  allowed  freedom  of  education,  and  the 
practice  of  the  law  to  them, 

2  This  is  hardly  fair  on  Canning.  He  had  already 
(1799)  laboured  hard  for  Catholic  Emancipation  in  Ire- 
land, and  left  the  Government  with  Pitt  on  the  King's 
refusing  his  consent.  When  Smith  wrote  these  lines 
(1807),  Canning  was,  it  is  true,  in  office  with  Perceval  and 
Castlereagh,  but  he  soon  resigned  ;  and  he  worked  strenu- 
ously till  the  day  of  his  death  for  Catholic  Emancipation, 


364  SYDNEY  SMITH 

idea  of  Protestant  bailiffs  ravishing  Catholic 
ladies,  under  the  9th  clause  of  the  sun-set  bill ; 
but  if  some  better  remedy  is  not  applied  to  the 
distractions  of  Ireland  than  the  jocularity  of 
Mr  Canning,  they  will  soon  put  an  end  to  his 
pension,  and  to  the  pension  of  those  ^  near  and 
dear  relatives,'  for  whose  eating,  drinking, 
washing,  and  clothing,  every  man  in  the  united 
kingdoms  now  pays  his  two  pence  or  three 
pence  a  year.  You  may  call  these  observations 
coarse,  if  you  please  ;  but  I  have  no  idea  that 
the  Sophias  and  Carolines  of  any  man  breath- 
ing are  to  eat  national  veal,  to  drink  public  tea 
and  to  wear  Treasury  ribbons,  and  then  that 
we  are  to  be  told  that  it  is  coarse  to  animadvert 
upon  this  pitiful  and  eleemosynary  splendour. 
If  this  is  right,  why  not  mention  it  ?  If  it  is 
wrong,  why  should  not  he  who  enjoys  the  ease 
of  supporting  his  sisters  in  this  manner  bear  the 
shame  of  it?  Every  body  seems  hitherto  to 
have  spared  a  man,  who  never  spares  any 
body. 

As  for  the  enormous  wax  candles,  and  super- 
stitious mummeries,  and  painted  jackets  of 
the  Catholic  priests,  I  fear  them  not.  Tell 
me  that  the  World  wiU  return  again  under 
the  influence  of  the  small-pox;  that  Lord 
Castlereagh  will  hereafter   oppose   the  power 


SYDNEY  SMITH  365 

of  the  Court;  that  Lord  Ho  wick  ^  and  Mr 
Grattan^  will  do  each  of  them  a  mean  and 
dishonourable  action  ;  that  any  body  who  has 
heard  Lord  Redesdale  speak  once,  will  know- 
ingly and  willingly  hear  him  again ;  that  Lord 
Eldon  has  assented  to  the  fact  of  two  and  two 
making  four,  without  shedding  tears,  or  ex- 
pressing the  smallest  doubt  or  scruple;  tell 
me  any  other  thing  absurd  or  incredible,  but 
— for  the  love  of  common  sense,  let  me  hear 
no  more  of  the  danger  to  be  apprehended 
from  the  general  diffusion  of  popery.  It  is 
too  absurd  to  be  reasoned  upon ;  every  man 
feels  it  is  nonsense  when  he  hears  it  stated, 
and  so  does  every  man  while  he  is  stating  it. 
I  cannot  imagine  why  the  friends  to  the 
Church  Establishment  should  entertain  such 
an  horror  of  seeing  the  doors  of  Parliament 
flung  open  to  the  Catholics,  and  view  so  pas- 
sively the  enjoyment  of  that  right  by  the  Pres- 
byterians, and  by  every  other  species  of  Dis- 
senter. In  their  Tenets,  in  their  church  govern- 
ments, in  the  nature  of  their  endowment,  the 
Dissenters  are  infinitely  more  distant  from  the 
Church  of  England   than  the   Catholics   are ; 

^  Afterwards  Earl  Grey. 

2  Himself  a  Protestant,  Grattan  strove  passionately  for 
Catholic  Emancipation. 


366  SYDNEY  SMITH 

yet  the  Dissenters  have  never  been  excluded 
from  Parliament.  There  are  45  members  in 
one  house,  and  16  in  the  other,  who  always 
are  Dissenters.  There  is  no  law  which  would 
prevent  every  member  of  the  Lords  and  Com- 
mons from  being  Dissenters.  The  Catholics 
could  not  bring  into  Parliament  half  the 
number  of  the  Scotch  members ;  and  yet  one 
exclusion  is  of  such  immense  importance,  be- 
cause it  has  taken  place;  and  the  other  no 
human  being  thinks  of,  because  no  one  is 
accustomed  to  it.  I  have  often  thought,  if 
the  wisdom  of  our  ancestors  had  excluded  all 
persons  with  red  hair  from  the  House  of 
Commons,  of  the  throes  and  convulsions  it 
would  occasion  to  restore  them  to  their  natural 
rights.  What  mobs  and  riots  would  it  pro- 
duce? To  what  infinite  abuse  and  obloquy 
would  the  capillary  patriot  be  exposed;  what 
wormwood  would  distil  from  Mr  Perceval, 
what  froth  would  drop  fi'om  Mr  Canning ; 
how  (I  will  not  say  m^/,  but  our  Lord 
Hawkesbury,^  for  he  belongs  to  us  all)  how 

1  Afterwards  2nd  Earl  of  Liverpool.  Barring  the  year 
1806  he  was  continually  in  office  from  1793  to  his  last 
illness  in  1827.  He  was  a  man  of  immense  prejudices, 
and  always  prominent  in  his  opposition  to  Catholic 
Emancipation.  He  practically  secured  the  appointment 
of  the  Portland  and  Perceval  administration  on  this 
question. 


SYDNEY  SMITH  367 

our  Lord  Hawkesbury  would  work  away  about 
the  hair  of  King  William  and  Lord  Somers, 
and  the  authors  of  the  great  and  glorious 
Revolution;  how  Lord  Eldon  would  appeal 
to  the  Deity,  and  his  own  virtues ;  and  to 
the  hair  of  his  children :  some  would  say 
that  red-haired  men  were  superstitious ;  some 
would  prove  they  were  atheists ;  they  would 
be  petitioned  against  as  the  friends  of  slavery, 
and  the  advocates  of  revolt ;  in  short,  such  a 
corrupter  of  the  heart  and  the  understanding 
is  the  spirit  of  persecution,  that  these  un- 
fortunate people  (conspired  against  by  their 
fellow  subjects  of  every  complexion),  if  they 
did  not  emigrate  to  countries  where  hair  of 
another  colour  was  persecuted,  would  be  diiven 
to  the  falsehood  of  perukes,  or  the  hypocrisy 
of  the  Tricosian  fluid. 

As  for  the  dangers  of  the  Church  (in  spite 
of  the  staggering  events  which  have  lately 
taken  place)  I  have  not  yet  entirely  lost  my 
confidence  in  the  power  of  common  sense, 
and  I  believe  the  Church  to  be  in  no  danger 
at  all;  but  if  it  is,  that  danger  is  not  from 
the  CathoUcs,  but  from  the  Methodists,  and 
from  that  patent  Christianity  which  has  been 
for  some  time  manufacturing  at  Clapham,^  to 

1  The  *  Clapham  Sect.' 


368  SYDNEY  SMITH 

the  prejudice  of  the  old  and  admirable  article 
prepared  by  the  Church.  I  would  counsel  my 
Lords  the  Bishops  to  keep  their  eyes  upon 
that  holy  village,  and  its  hallowed  vicinity ; 
they  will  find  there  a  zeal  in  making  con- 
verts, far  superior  to  anything  which  exists 
among  the  Catholics  ;  a  contempt  for  the  great 
mass  of  English  clergy,  much  more  rooted 
and  profound  ;  and  a  regular  fund  to  purchase 
livings  for  those  groaning  and  garrulous  gentle- 
men, whom  they  denominate  (by  a  standing 
sarcasm  against  the  regular  Church)  Gospel 
preachers  and  Vital  clergymen.  I  am  too 
firm  a  believer  in  the  general  propriety  and 
respectability  of  the  English  clergy,  to  believe 
they  have  much  to  fear  either  from  old  non- 
sense, or  from  new;  but  if  the  Church  must 
be  supposed  to  be  in  danger,  I  prefer  that 
nonsense  which  is  grown  half  venerable  from 
time,  the  force  of  which  I  have  already  tried 
and  baffled,  which  at  least  has  some  excuse 
in  the  dark  and  ignorant  ages  in  which  it 
originated.  The  religious  enthusiasm  manu- 
factured by  living  men  before  my  own  eyes, 
disgusts  my  understanding  as  much,  influences 
my  imagination  not  at  all,  and  excites  my 
apprehensions  much  more. 

I  may  have  seemed  to  you  to  treat   the 


SYDNEY  SMITH  369 

situation  of  public  affairs  with  some  degree 
of  levity ;  but  I  feel  it  deeply,  and  with 
nightly  and  daily  anguish;  because  I  know 
Ireland ;  I  have  known  it  all  my  hfe ;  I  love 
it,  and  I  foresee  the  crisis  to  which  it  will 
soon  be  exposed.  Who  can  doubt  but  that 
Ireland  will  experience  ultimately  from  France 
a  treatment,  to  which  the  conduct  they  have 
experienced  from  England  is  the  love  of  a 
parent,  or  a  brother?  Wlio  can  doubt  but 
that  five  years  after  he  has  got  hold  of  the 
country,  Ireland  will  be  tossed  away  by 
Bonaparte  as  a  present  to  some  one  of  his 
ruffian  generals,  who  will  knock  the  head 
of  Mr  Keogh  against  the  head  of  Cardinal 
Troy,  shoot  twenty  of  the  most  noisy  block- 
heads of  the  Roman  persuasion,  wash  his 
pug-dogs  in  holy  water,  and  confiscate  the 
salt  butter  of  the  Milesian  Republic  to  the 
last  tub.  But  what  matters  this?  or  who 
is  wise  enough  in  Ireland  to  heed  it?  or 
when  had  common  sense  much  influence  with 
the  poor  dear  Irish?  Mr  Perceval  does  not 
know  the  Irish;  but  I  know  them,  and  I 
know  that,  at  every  rash  and  mad  hazard, 
they  will  break  the  Union,  revenge  their 
wounded  pride,  and  their  insulted  reHgion, 
and  fling  themselves   into   the  open  arms  of 


370  SYDNEY  SMITH 

France,  sure  of  dying  in  the  embrace.  And 
now  what  means  have  you  of  guarding  against 
this  coming  evil,  upon  which  the  future  happi- 
ness or  misery  of  every  Englishman  depends? 
Have  you  a  single  ally  in  the  whole  world  ? 
Is  there  a  vulnerable  point  in  the  French 
Empire,  where  the  astonishing  resources  of 
that  people  can  be  attracted  and  employed? 
Have  you  a  ministry  wise  enough  to  com- 
prehend the  danger,  manly  enough  to  believe 
unpleasant  inteUigence,  honest  enough  to  state 
their  apprehensions  at  the  peril  of  their  places  ? 
Is  there  any  where  the  slightest  disposition  to 
join  any  measure  of  love,  or  concihation,  or 
hope,  with  that  dreadful  bill  which  the  dis- 
tractions of  Ireland  have  rendered  necessary? 
At  the  very  moment  that  the  last  Monarchy 
in  Europe  has  fallen,  are  we  not  governed  by 
a  man  of  pleasantry,  and  a  man  of  theology  ?  ^ 
In  the  six  hundredth  year  of  our  empire  over 
Ireland,  have  we  any  memorial  of  antient  kind- 
ness to  refer  to?  Any  people,  any  zeal,  any 
country  on  which  we  can  depend?  Have 
we  any  hope,  but  in  the  winds  of  heaven, 
and  the  tides  of  the  sea?  any  prayer  to 
prefer  to  the  Irish  but  that  they  should  for- 
get   and    forgive    their    oppressors,    who,    in 

^  Canning  and  Perceval. 


SYDNEY  SMITH  371 

the  very  moment  that  they  are  calHng  upon 
them  for  their  exertions,  solemnly  assure  them 
that  the  oppression  shall  still  remain? 

Abraham,  farewell!  If  I  have  tired  you, 
remember  how  often  you  have  tired  me,  and 
others.  I  do  not  think  we  really  differ  in 
politics  so  much  as  you  suppose;  or  at  least, 
if  we  do,  that  difference  is  in  the  means,  and 
not  in  the  end.  We  both  love  the  Constitu- 
tion, respect  the  King,  and  abhor  the  French. 
But  though  you  love  the  Constitution,  you 
would  perpetuate  the  abuses  which  have  been 
ingrafted  upon  it;  though  you  respect  the 
King,  you  would  confirm  his  scruples  against 
the  CathoUcs ;  though  you  abhor  the  French, 
you  would  open  to  them  the  conquest  of 
Ireland.  My  method  of  respecting  my 
Sovereign,  is  by  protecting  his  honour,  liis 
empire,  and  his  lasting  happiness;  I  evince 
my  love  of  the  Constitution,  by  making  it 
the  guardian  of  all  men's  rights,  and  the  source 
of  their  freedom ;  and  I  prove  my  abhorrence 
of  the  French,  by  uniting  against  them  the 
disciples  of  every  Church  in  the  only  re- 
maining nation  in  Europe.  As  for  the  men 
of  whom  I  have  been  compelled  in  this  age 
of  mediocrity  to  say  so  much,  they  cannot 
of  themselves  be  worth  a  moment's  considera- 


372  SYDNEY  SMITH 

tion,  to  you,  to  me,  or  to  any  body.  In 
a  year  after  their  death,  they  will  be  for- 
gotten as  completely  as  if  they  had  never 
been;  and  are  now  of  no  further  import- 
ance, than  as  they  are  the  mere  vehicles  of 
carrying  into  effect  the  common  -  place  and 
mischievous  prejudices  of  the  times  in  which 
they  live. 


XVIII 
JOHN  HENRY  NEWMAN 

[Cardinal  Newman  was  born  1801,  fellow  of  Oriel 
1822,  and  Vicar  of  St  Mary's  in  1828 ;  in  1845  he 
joined  the  Roman  Church,  and  died  in  1890. 

The  short  tract  here  given  was  published  only- 
three  months  after  Keble  had  preached  the  sermon 
on  National  Apostacy  (July  1833),  which  Newman 
considered  the  starting  point  of  the  Oxford  Move- 
ment. It  thus  represents  the  Movement  in  its  first 
beginnings,  and  on  a  characteristic  side.  Newman 
had  begun  the  Tracts  'out  of  my  own  head'  in 
September  1833,  and  it  was  with  Newman  that  they 
ended  in  the  storm  of  Tract  Ninety.  The  Tracts 
began  as  leaflets,  and  came  to  be  books  :  we  have 
had  to  be  content  with  a  specimen  of  the  earlier 
kind.] 

From  ^  Tracts  for  the  Times  ' ;  by  Members 
of  the  University  of  Oxford.  Vol.  I.  for 
1833-4. 

Oct.  29,  1833.  No.  7.— Price  Id. 

THE  EPISCOPAL  CHURCH 
APOSTOLICAL. 

There  are  many  persons  at  the  present  day, 
who,  from  not  having  turned  their  minds  to  the 

373 


374         JOHN  HENRY  NEWMAN 

subject,  think  they  are  Churchmen  in  the  sense 
in  which  the  early  Christians  were,  merely 
because  they  are  Episcopalians.  The  extent  of 
their  Churchmanship  is,  to  consider  that 
Episcopacy  is  the  best  form  of  Ecclesiastical 
Polity ;  and  again,  that  it  originated  with  the 
Apostles.  I  am  far  from  implying,  that  to  go 
thus  far  is  nothing ;  or  is  not  an  evidence,  (for 
it  is,)  of  a  reverent  and  sober  temper  of  mind ; 
still  the  view  is  defective.  It  is  defective, 
because  the  expediency  of  a  system,  though  a 
very  cogent,  is  not  the  highest  line  of  argu- 
ment that  may  be  taken  in  its  defence :  and 
because  an  opponent  may  deny  the  fact  of 
the  ApostoUcity  of  Episcopacy,  and  so  involve 
its  maintainer  in  an  argument.  Doubtless  the 
more  clear  and  simple  principle  for  a  Church- 
man to  hold,  is  that  of  a  Ministerial  Suc- 
cession ;  which  is  undeniable  as  a  fact,  while  it 
is  most  reasonable  as  a  doctrine,  and  sufficiently 
countenanced  in  Scriptm-e  for  its  practical 
reception.  Of  this.  Episcopacy,  i.e.  Superin- 
tendence, is  but  an  accident;  though,  for  the 
sake  of  conciseness,  it  is  often  spoken  of  by  us 
as  synonymous  with  it.  It  shall  be  the  object 
of  the  following  Tract  to  insist  upon  this  higher 
characteristic  of  our  Church. 

My  position  then  is  this ; — that  the  Apostles 


JOHN  HENRY  NEWMAN         375 

appointed  successors  to  their  ministerial  office, 
and  the  latter  in  turn  appointed  others,  and  so 
on  to  the  present  day ; — and  further,  that  the 
Apostles  and  their  Successors  have  in  every 
age  committed  portions  of  their  power  and 
authority  to  others,  who  thus  become  theii* 
delegates,  and  in  a  measure  their  representa- 
tives, and  are  called  Priests  and  Deacons.  The 
result  is  an  Episcopal  system,  because  of  the 
practice  of  delegation;  but  we  may  conceive 
their  keeping  their  powers  altogether  to  them- 
selves, and  in  the  same  proportion  in  which 
this  was  done,  would  the  Church  poUty  cease 
to  be  Episcopalian.  We  may  conceive  the 
Order  of  Apostolic  Vicars,  (so  to  call  it,)  in- 
creased, till  one  of  them  was  placed  in  every 
village,  and  took  the  office  of  parish  Priest.  I 
do  not  say  such  a  measure  would  be  justifiable 
or  pious ; — doubtless  it  would  be  a  departure 
from  the  rule  of  antiquity — but  it  is  conceiv- 
able ;  and  it  is  useful  to  conceive  it,  in  order  to 
form  a  clear  notion  of  the  Essence  of  the  Church 
System,  and  the  defective  state  of  those 
Christian  Societies  which  are  separate  from  the 
Church  Catholic.  It  is  a  common  answer  made 
to  those  who  are  called  High  Churchmen,  to 
say,  that  ^  if  God  had  intended  the  form  of 
Church  Government  to  be  of  great  consequence. 


376         JOHN  HENRY  NEWMAN 

He  would  have  worded  His  will  in  this  matter 
more  clearly  in  Scripture.'  Now  enough  has 
already  been  said  to  show  the  irrelevancy  of 
such  a  remark.  We  need  not  deny  to  the 
Church  the  abstract  right,  (however  we  may 
question  the  propriety,)  of  altering  its  own  con- 
stitution. It  is  not  merely  because  Episcopacy 
is  a  better  or  more  scriptural  form  than  Presby- 
terianism,  (true  as  this  may  be  in  itself,)  that 
Episcopalians  are  right,  and  Presbyterians  are 
wrong ;  but  because  the  Presbyterian  Ministers 
have  assumed  a  power,  which  was  never 
intrusted  to  them.  They  have  presumed  to 
exercise  the  power  of  ordination,  and  to 
perpetuate  a  succession  of  ministers,  without 
having  received  a  commission  to  do  so.  This 
is  the  plain  fact  that  condemns  them  ;  and  is  a 
standing  condemnation,  from  which  they  can- 
not escape,  except  by  artificers  of  argument, 
which  will  serve  equally  to  protect  the  self- 
authorised  teacher  of  religion.  If  they  may 
ordain  without  being  sent  to  do  so,  others  may 
teach  and  preach  without  being  sent.  They 
hold  a  middle  position,  which  is  untenable  as 
destroying  itself ;  for  if  Christians  can  do  with- 
out Bishops,  {i.e.  Commissioned  Ordainers,)  they 
may  do  without  Commissioned  Ministers,  {i.e. 
the  Priests  and  Deacons).     If  an  imposition  of 


JOHN  HENRY  NEWMAN         377 

hands   is   necessary  to   convey  one   gift,   why 
should  it  not  be  to  convey  another? 

1.  As  to  the  foAit  of  the  ApostoHcal  Suc- 
cession, i.e.  that  our  present  Bishops  are  the 
heirs  and  representatives  of  the  Apostles  by 
successive  transmission  of  the  prerogative  of 
being  so,  this  is  too  notorious  to  require 
proof.  Every  link  in  the  chain  is  known 
from  St  Peter  to  our  present  Metropolitans. 
Here  then  I  only  ask,  looking  at  this  plain 
fact  by  itself,  is  there  not  something  of  a 
divine  providence  in  it  ?  can  we  conceive 
that  this  Succession  has  been  preserved,  all 
over  the  world,  amid  many  revolutions, 
through  many  centuries,  for  nothing?  Is  it 
wise  or  pious  to  despise  or  neglect  a  gift 
thus  transmitted  to  us  in  matter  of  fact, 
even  if  Scripture  did  not  touch  upon  the 
subject  ? 

2.  Next,  consider  how  natural  is  the 
doctrine  of  a  Succession.  When  an  in- 
dividual comes  to  me,  claiming  to  speak  in 
the  name  of  the  Most  High,  it  is  natural  to 
ask  him  for  his  authority.  If  he  rephes, 
that  we  are  all  bound  to  instruct  each  other, 
this  reply  is  intelligible,  but  in  the  very  form 
of  it  excludes  the  notion  of  a  ministerial 
order,  i.e.  a  class  of  persons  set  apart  from 

2a 


378        JOHN  HENRY  NEWMAN 

others  for  religious  offices.  If  he  appeals 
to  some  miraculous  gift,  this  too  is  in- 
telligible, and  only  unsatisfactory  when  the 
alleged  gift  is  proved  to  be  a  fiction.  No 
other  answer  can  be  given,  except  a  reference 
to  some  person,  who  has  given  him  license 
to  exercise  ministerial  functions;  then  follows 
the  question,  how  that  individual  gained  his 
authority  to  do  so.  In  the  case  of  the 
Catholic  Church,  the  person  referred  to,  l.e, 
the  Bishop,  has  received  it  from  a  predecessor, 
and  he  from  another,  and  so  on,  till  we  arrive 
at  the  Apostles  themselves,  and  thence  our 
Lord  and  Saviour.  It  is  superfluous  to  dwell 
on  so  plain  a  principle,  which  in  matters  of 
this  world  we  act  upon  daily. 

3.  Lastly,  the  argument  from  Scripture  is 
surely  quite  clear  to  those,  who  honestly  wish 
direction  for  practice.  Christ  promised  He 
would  be  with  His  Apostles  always,  as 
ministers  of  His  religion,  even  unto  the  end 
of  the  world.  In  one  sense  the  Apostles 
were  to  be  alive,  till  He  came  again ;  but 
they  all  died  at  the  natural  time.  Does  it 
not  follow,  that  there  are  those  now  alive  who 
represent  them?  Now  who  were  the  most 
probable  representatives  of  them  in  the  genera- 
tion next  their   death?     They  surely,  whom 


JOHN  HENRY  NEWMAN  379 

they  have   ordained   to   succeed   them   in  the 
ministerial   work.      If  any   persons    could   be 
said  to  have  Christ's   power   and   presence, 
and    the    gifts    of    ruling    and    ordaining,    of 
teaching,  of  binding  and   loosing,   (and   com- 
paring together  the  various  Scriptures  on  the 
subject,  all  these  seem  included  in  His  pro- 
mise to  be  with  the   Church  always,)  surely 
those,  on  whom  the  Apostles  laid  their  hands, 
were  they.     And  so  in  the  next  age,   if  any 
were   representatives   of   the   first   representa- 
tives,  they  must   be   the   next   generation   of 
Bishops,   and  so  on.     Nor  does  it  materially 
alter   the   argument,  though   we   suppose   the 
blessing    upon    Ministerial   Offices   made,   not 
to   the   Apostles,  but   to   the   whole   body  of 
Disciples ;   i.e.   the   Church.     For,    even   if  it 
be  the  Church  that  has  the  power  of  ordina- 
tion   committed    to    it,    still    it    exercises    it 
through  the   Bishops   as   its  organs;  and  the 
question    recurs,   how  has   the   Presbytery  in 
this   or    that    country   obtained    the    power? 
The  Church  certainly  has  from  the  first  com- 
mitted   it    to    the    Bishops,    and    has    never 
resumed  it;  and  the  Bishops  have  no  where 
committed   it   to   the   Presbytery,  who  there- 
fore cannot  be  in  possession  of  it. 

However,   it  is   merely   for   argument  sake 


38o         JOHN  HENRY  NEWMAN 

that  I  make  this  allowance,  as  to  the  mean- 
ing of  the  text  in  Matt,  xxviii.;  for  our 
Lord's  promise  of  His  presence  ^unto  the 
end  of  the  world,'  was  made  to  the  Apostles, 
hy  themselves.  At  the  same  time,  let  it  be 
observed  what  force  is  added  to  the  argu- 
ment for  the  Apostolical  Succession,  by  the 
acknowledged  existence  in  Scripture  of  the 
doctrine  of  a  standing  Church,  or  permanent 
Body  Corporate  for  spiritual  purposes.  For, 
if  Scripture  has  formed  all  Christians  into 
one  continuous  community  through  all  ages, 
(which  I  do  not  here  prove,)  it  is  but 
according  to  the  same  analogy,  that  the 
Ministerial  Office  should  be  vested  in  an 
Order,  propagated  from  age  to  age,  on  a 
principle  of  Succession.  And,  if  we  proceed 
to  considerations  of  utility  and  expedience,  it 
is  plain,  that,  according  to  our  notions,  it 
is  more  necessary  that  a  Minister  should  be 
perpetuated  by  a  fixed  law,  than  that  the 
community  of  Christians  should  be,  which 
can  scarcely  be  considered  to  be  vested  with 
any  powers,  such  as  to  require  the  visible 
authority  which  a  Succession  suppHes. 


TDBKBULL  AKD  8PBAKS,  PKINTERfi,   EDIKBUEQH. 


Princeton 


Theological  SeminarY  Libraries 


1    1012  01245  2324 


